'They rub it in': Michael Hooper reviews All Blacks' win over Wallabies

It was a tough sporting weekend for those who call Sydney home. The Sydney Swans were favoured to win the AFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but they ended up losing by a mammoth score, and Australia were also beaten in a Bledisloe Cup Test.

About two hours before last weekend’s clash between the Wallabies and All Blacks, the Sydney Swans ran out onto the sacred turf of the MCG to take on the Brisbane Lions. But, halfway through the game, the premiership was all but decided as the Lions took a strong lead.

Brisbane ended up storming home by a whopping 120-60 margin. That left those passionate fans watching their team compete for glory on the big screen at the Sydney Cricket Ground wondering where it had all gone wrong.

When the full-time siren sounded in AFL’s big dance, a rugby battle across the ditch was already underway. The Wallabies struck first through Fraser McReight at Wellington’s Sky Stadium, and while the opening 40 minutes was tense, it was one-way traffic after the break.

The All Blacks ended up running away with a convincing 33-13 win.

“It was a tough day in Sydney yesterday,” Hooper said on Stan Sports’ Between Two Posts. “Swans got beat, our country got beat in another Bledisloe.

“Then I went to Six60 down at the Manly Barracks, which is a Kiwi band, and they’re reminding me (of the Bledisloe Cup win).

“They rub it in,” he said with a chuckle. “They rub it in.”

One week earlier, the two Trans-Tasman rivals played out a thriller of sorts at Sydney’s Accor Stadium. New Zealand led 21-nil after just 15 minutes but the opening Bledisloe Cup Test ended up going right down to the wire.

McReight scored the Wallabies’ opening try in that Test as well. Matt Faessler, Hunter Paisami and Tom Wright also crossed for a try each as the hosts trailed 31-28 with just over a minute left on the clock, but the men in black hung on to retain the prestigious Cup.

Then, in New Zealand’s windy capital, the Wallabies looked supremely confident early on with McReight crossing the chalk early on. There had been a lot of talk in the lead-up to that fixture about the All Blacks’ poor record in Wellington, and it seemed to be a factor once again.

But Sevu Reece, Will Jordan and Caleb Clarke all scored later on in the half to give the All Blacks the lead at the interval. The Wallabies didn’t score any more points either as the hosts ran riot during a solid second-half performance.

As Hooper explained, “They were definitely a level up.”

“They definitely identified some areas where they could pull apart the All Blacks. There was one scrum play, (Andrew Kellaway) goes down blind,” Hooper added.

“They did their review. The coaching staff really pulled it apart nicely and they fired some good shots, and we saw that in gam one, didn’t we, with the overthrow for Fraser’s (McReight) try and some good maul entries.

“But last night, Will Jordan had things on a string last night. Some of their tries just looked so easy, don’t they? And our tries, they had to work so bloody hard for it.

“That one was a tough one, wasn’t it, where they scored just before the half.

“They were definitely a level up there last night from their performance the week prior.”