IT doesn’t get any more cruel than this. The Wallabies excel in all areas of play, except one – goalkicking – and they experience the pain and indignity of suffering their longest sequence of losses to the All Blacks.

The All Blacks were last night revelling in their historic 10th straight win over the Wallabies – beating the previous worst sequence of nine Australian losses between 1936-47, but the home team did not deserve such a humiliating end following the tightest of Test matches.

If only, Wallabies goalkicker Matt Giteau had not missed four shots at goal, and they would have been revelling in a great and justified victory. Instead after 10 points were missed, Australia were justifiably feeling sour and disillusioned after playing well for so long, and then not being able to stop the All Blacks in the final 15 minutes when they scored the required points to shoot ahead.

The All Blacks played to their strengths, but the loss was not an embarrassment for the Wallabies, as they had an abundance of great performances, in particular No.8 Ben McCalman, and the back three of wingers Lachie Turner, James O’Connor and fullback Kurtley Beale.

In the first half, the Wallabies relied on the new in McCalman and the resurrected in Turner to put them ahead 14-6 at the break.

But the Wallabies also wasted numerous crucial important opportunities early on, especially in the goalkicking department, when Giteau lost his bearings once again, missing three relatively comfortable shots from the right-hand side of the field.

Despite this blemish, the Wallabies began the Test with the same flourish and exuberance that they finished off the Bloemfontein international last weekend by playing to extremes, pushing to the boundaries, and forever testing the All Blacks with their extravagance.

With O’Connor cleverly playing off his wing and often hovering in the midfield, Wallabies five-eighth Quade Cooper successfully mixed up his options by diverting the play towards his winger and close friend.

O’Connor was again on song, as was Turner, who thought he had scored the first try of the match in the sixth minute when he finished off a fine sweeping attacking move, only for the try to disallowed on the video replay as his foot had hit the sideline.

At least the Wallabies kept up the pace, getting a deserved reward in the 16th minute when McCalman, who had already been involved in several important tackles and fine thrusting runs, noticed wide space on the blindside when a scrum was set about 40 metres from the All Blacks line.

McCalman broke from the scrum with ball in hand, and noticing that All Blacks blindside flanker Victor Vito had veered wide in an attempt to cut him off, stepped off his right foot and went inside him. The rest of the All Blacks pack was slow to react, and the Wallabies were away.

O’Connor followed his Western Force teammate, and with the pass timed perfectly had open space to complete the first try of the game.

As encouraging was that the Wallabies kept their heads after that. During this season’s Tri Nations, the Wallabies have been victims of relaxing as soon as they scored. But it didn’t happen this time, with the Wallabies instead gradually moving ahead. But Giteau’s repeated misses at goal was a perplexing gut-wrencher.

The Wallabies began the second half was the same amount of gusto as the first, taking their lead to 19-6 in the 46th minute when centre Adam Ashley-Cooper again showed his marvellous attacking nous to beat three opponents to score.

Again Giteau missed the conversion, forcing him to thankfully be replaced for the next shot at goal when Kurtley Beale took over, and as in Bloemfontein, immediately found his target.

The Wallabies defence stood up until the 66th minute when persistent pressure on their line eventually saw them crack, allowing All Blacks captain Richie McCaw to score from a blindside scrum move.

Then they took the lead in the 72nd minute when their No.8 Kieran Read smuggled his way across.

The All Blacks held on, but the Wallabies have every right to be feel gutted. They should have won.

NEW ZEALAND 23 (Richard McCaw, Kieran Read tries Piri Weepu 2 cons 3 pens) bt AUSTRALIA 22 (Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O’Connor tries Matt Giteau 3, Kurtley Beale pens) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Mark Lawrence (RSA). Crowd: 70,288