Ben Smith scored a hat-trick as New Zealand opened their Rugby Championship title defense with a six-try 47-29 victory over Australia yesterday to ruin Ewen McKenzie’s first match as Wallabies coach.
The All Blacks scored three tries either side of halftime with Aaron Cruden, Richie McCaw and Conrad Smith supplementing Ben Smith’s triple score.
Will Genia and James O’Connor scored what were ultimately consolation tries for the home side with Christian Leali’ifano adding 19 points from the boot.
Photo: Reuters
As well as giving the All Blacks a bonus point in the Rugby Championship, the victory means Australia must win both the return in Wellington next week and in Dunedin in October to claim the Bledisloe Cup.
It took Ben Smith just three minutes to score the first All Blacks try. Pouncing on a knock on, New Zealand charged to the home try line and Aaron Smith fed quick ball to Cruden who took a tackle before finding his winger to touch down.
Australia inched back into the match on the back of three Leali’ifano penalties to one from Cruden and the Wallabies center gave the home side a 12-10 lead with his fourth.
The advantage lasted less than a minute before Leali’ifano had a kick charged down by Cruden, who recovered the ball to score and then converted his own try.
Three minutes later, Jesse Mogg failed to find touch with a clearance kick and the All Blacks stormed forward for McCaw to score a try.
After Michael Hooper snared a loose ball at the lineout, Will Genia raced nearly 60m to touch down under the posts. Leali’ifano added the extras to reduce the gap to three points, but Cruden added his second penalty just before the break.
A fifth Leali’ifano penalty six minutes after the break narrowed the deficit, but two tries in six minutes put the visitors back in charge.
First Aaron Smith burst up the middle of the Australian defense before feeding Conrad Smith, who skipped past Mogg to touch down.
When the All Blacks got quick ball under the Wallabies’ posts in the 57th minute, it was just a matter of getting the ball down the backline to put Ben Smith in to score.
Cruden hit the uprights for the second time on the night with his conversion kick, but the All Blacks looked comfortable at 37-22.
He took the All Blacks to 40 points with his third penalty, while Smith’s third try was simplicity itself when Tevita Kuridrani released the ball at the tackle leaving the winger to scoop it up and score.
O’Connor scored in the final seconds for the Wallabies.
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
This year’s Taiwan Athletics Open, which offers Taiwanese athletes an opportunity to compete against their international peers, would be held under a new name after its organizers had earlier announced the event’s cancelation. In a statement issued yesterday, the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association said the competition would still take place on June 6-7 at Banciao Stadium, but under the name “New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026.” The event was given a new name to emphasize its local identity and conform with the international practice of naming World Athletics Tour events after cities, the association said. It said it would soon
Taiwanese shortstop Cheng Tsung-che on Friday made history for the Boston Red Sox’s Triple A affiliate, hitting the Worcester Red Sox’s first cycle, while netting two runs, as they beat fellow Taiwan teammate Stuart Fairchild’s Columbus Clippers. The 24-year-old former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect went 4-4, completing a full cycle, starting with a triple in the second inning off Ryan Webb in the WooSox’s 9-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians’ Triple A affiliate. He scored in the same inning after teammate Vinny Capra, a fellow former Pirate, grounded out. The Pingtung County native followed that up with a walk in the third, an
RSS