All Blacks hammering of Wallabies give Springboks series win perspective

The All Blacks dismantling of the Wallabies showed that there is a bigger gap between the Springboks best and next best.

The All Blacks’ 50-19 win over the Wallabies was emphatic, but it did not prove that New Zealand has moved clear of France and the chasing pack. For South Africa, the more revealing comparison is between the full-strength Springboks who beat the All Blacks three times in succession and the Bok XV that struggled against Australia in Perth.

The Wallabies arrived at Eden Park on a six-Test unbeaten run, buoyed by their 42-38 win over South Africa. They had beaten a weakened Springbok side and some saw the result as evidence Australia had closed the gap on the world’s best.

New Zealand showed how much further Australia has to travel.

The Wallabies were competitive in the first half, trailing 17-14 at the break. Then the All Blacks took command. Their forwards dominated the set piece, Jordie Barrett underlined his class, and five second-half tries turned a contest into a rout. Australia had not won at Eden Park since 1986. Few expected them to lose by 31 points.

This was a match New Zealand needed. They had just lost three Tests in succession to the Springboks and arrived under pressure to respond. They did so with a performance of power, pace and precision. They were battle-hardened by a demanding tour and showed the benefit of having been tested against the best.

But the result also needs to be read in a South African context. Australia’s win in Perth was significant. The Wallabies scored 42 points and beat the Boks. The selection, however, was not Rassie Erasmus’s preferred first-choice team. The Springbok XV that started in Perth struggled to contain Australia. The All Blacks then faced the regular Boks across Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry and lost the final three Tests as South Africa won the series 3-1.

That is the gulf this match brought into focus: not simply between New Zealand and Australia, but within South African rugby between the first-choice Boks and the side that played in Perth. The Springboks’ best XV proved it could beat an improving All Blacks team repeatedly. The Perth defeat showed how much changes when that preferred team is not on the field.

New Zealand deserve credit for how they responded. Their pack imposed itself on Australia, and their backs punished every weakness. Jordie Barrett’s quality was evident in the way he managed the game and brought others into it. The Wallabies’ set piece could not provide a platform. It was a far less demanding examination for the All Blacks’ forwards than fronting the Springboks’ first-choice pack.

Eden Park confirmed that the All Blacks remain a major force. It did not, on its own, establish a new hierarchy in which New Zealand have opened a clear gap on France and the teams chasing them. A dominant result against Australia says plenty about the Wallabies and New Zealand’s recovery. The more meaningful measure for South Africa remains the four-Test series in which the Boks beat the All Blacks three times in a row.

That distinction matters with the 2027 World Cup approaching. South Africa could meet Australia or New Zealand on the knockout path in Australia. Eden Park offered a useful scouting lesson: Australia can score and threaten, but its set piece and defence were exposed when New Zealand raised the pressure. The All Blacks can respond after setbacks, and remain dangerous when they find rhythm. The Boks will know both opponents better for watching.

The All Blacks have now gone 54 Tests unbeaten at Eden Park since 1994. Australia’s 21st consecutive defeat there since 1986 was emphatic. The record is extraordinary, but the scoreline should not be used to rewrite what happened in South Africa or overstate what Perth proved.

For South Africans, Eden Park reaffirmed New Zealand’s quality. More than that, it underlined just how good the regular Springboks are. Their series win was earned against a formidable opponent. The difference between Erasmus’s preferred first-choice team and the Bok XV that lost in Perth is substantial. The Wallabies’ Eden Park defeat made that difference impossible to ignore and put the Boks’ result in Perth into context.