History of rugby union matches between Australia and New Zealand

Summary

The summary below is for all matches where test caps were awarded by both national unions, but does not include matches from 1920 to 1928 that were retrospectively awarded test status by the Australian Rugby Union.

Records

Note: Date shown in brackets indicates when the record was or last set.

Rugby Championship era (2012-)

Starting in 2012 the Tri Nations competition was renamed The Rugby Championship, and now includes Argentina.

Tri Nations and the professional era (1996-2011)

The professional era in rugby union began in 1995, marked by creation of the SANZAR group (a combination of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) which was formed with the purpose of selling TV rights for two new competitions, the domestic Super 12 competition and the Tri-Nations.

The first Tri-Nations was contested in 1996, with New Zealand winning all four of their Tests to take the trophy.

In 2000 in Sydney, a record crowd of 109,874 witnessed the "Greatest ever Rugby Match" when a Jonah Lomu try sealed an All Blacks win over the Wallabies 39-35. The All Blacks had led 24-nil after 11 minutes only to see the Wallabies draw level at 24-all by halftime. Only for Lomu to score for the All Blacks to seal a fantastic match. Just weeks after, the Bledisloe was retained by the Wallabies when John Eales kicked a goal from the sideline in the final moments of the match.

Another one of the most dramatic matches was played on 1 September 2001 at Stadium Australia, in what would be Wallaby great John Eales' last ever test. The Wallabies were hoping to send their skipper off in a grand style. A fairy tale ending was looking possible in the first half as the Wallabies took a 19-6 lead over the All Blacks. However, tries for Doug Howlett and Pita Alatini, along with Andrew Mehrtens kicking, saw the All Blacks back in front 26-22. Then, in the dying moments of the game No.8 Toutai Kefu scored the winning try for the Wallabies. Two years later in 2003 the Wallabies suffered one of their most humiliating losses, being defeated 21-50 by the All Blacks in Sydney.

In 2008, a Bledisloe Cup match was played in Hong Kong, which New Zealand won 19-14. It was rumoured that the United States and Japan would host future Bledisloe Cup matches, and these rumours proved true in the case of Japan, as Tokyo hosted a 2009 Bledisloe match.

The first two Tests of the 2010 series saw the All Blacks extend their winning streak over the Wallabies to 10 games. (Australia's last previous win came on 26 July 2008 at Sydney.) The third and fourth tests were extremely tight affairs, both being won by late tries. In the Sydney test on 11 September, converted tries by Richie McCaw and Kieran Read in the last 13 minutes allowed the All Blacks to overcome a 9-22 deficit. The win saw New Zealand complete a 100% record in the 2010 Tri-Nations. On 30 October 2010 the sides contested the now-customary fourth annual Bledisloe Cup test at a neutral venue. As in 2009, the match was played in Hong Kong, and as on 11 September the game was won with a dramatic late comeback. On this occasion the Wallabies, having led early in the match, found themselves 19-24 down as the hooter went, but with possession in the All Black 22. The Wallabies recycled through numerous phases of possession, until finally the ball was passed wide to James O'Connor, who beat the scrambling All Black defence to touch down and level the scores. The 20-year-old winger then kicked the resulting conversion to win the match for the Wallabies, ending New Zealand's recent domination of the fixture.

Subsequently (2011–14) the All Blacks have won eight of the last eleven games played, with two drawn, continuing their domination. This included a crucial 20-6 victory over the Wallabies in the 2011 World Cup Semi-final to enable to All Blacks to progress to the final and subsequently win the World Cup.

On 17 August 2013 the All Blacks celebrated their 100th win over the Wallabies in emphatic style with a 47-29 victory in Sydney. After a shock 12-12 draw in Sydney in the first game of the 2014 series, which ended the All Blacks' attempt at the record of 18 wins straight for a major rugby nation team, the All Blacks posted their highest ever score against Australia with a 51-20 victory at Eden Park on 23 August 2014.

Post War (1946-1974)

The first Test following World War Two was played at Carisbrook, Dunedin between Australia and New Zealand in 1946, which New Zealand won 31–8. Australia did not win on the three match tour; beaten 20–0 by New Zealand Maori, and then losing 14–10 to the All Blacks the following week. The 1949 tour witnessed an infamous All Blacks record – the loss of two Test matches on the same day. This was made possible because New Zealand's first team (and best 30 players) were touring South Africa at the same time. On the afternoon of 3 September New Zealand captained by J. B. (Johnny) Smith was beaten 11–6 by The Wallabies in Wellington. On 23 September New Zealand also lost their second Test, 16–9, which gave the Wallabies the Bledisloe Cup for the first time.

Between wars

Australia's last Test before World War I was against New Zealand in July 1914. The sports authorities in Australia decided it was unpatriotic to play rugby while thousands of young Australian men were being sent overseas to fight. This resulted in competitions all but closed down in New South Wales and Queensland. In Queensland regular competitions did not commence again until 1928. As a result, players switched to rugby league in large numbers. Even though there was no Australia/New Zealand game after the war before 1929, 24 games were held between New South Wales and New Zealand from 1920 to 1928. The results were 18 victories against 6 for the All Blacks with 16 games taking place in Sydney, New South Wales (most of them at the Royal Agricultural Society Ground) and the rest in New Zealand. Those games are counted as Australia/New Zealand on the IRB website. Also 1931 saw the first game played competing for the Bledisloe Cup.

XV Results

From 1920 to 1928, 24 matches took place for which Australia retrospectively awarded test caps and test match status. New Zealand did not award test caps. Out of these 24 matches, Australia won 6 to New Zealand's 18.

Pre World War I

The first Test between Australia and New Zealand was played on 15 August 1903 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Despite the Wallabies losing 22–3 this tour greatly increased the popularity of rugby and large crowds started attending grade matches in Sydney and Brisbane. New Zealand winger Billy Wallace scored 13 of their 22 points.