Many reasons have been trotted out, some reasoable, some weird but almost every commentator has failed to mention one thing, New Zealand are simply a better team.
Their forward pack was miles ahead of ours, letting their halves (Johnson and Foran) have time they haven't been able to get in the nrl. Chuck in a dependable backline and they are easily a better team.
Apart from the Foran reference because I think he had a quiet game in a the scheme of things, most of this is a fair assessment.
One of the things that used to play into Australia's favour against Kiwi teams of the not so distant past was a fitness advantage that saw us dominate and over run them in the final 5-10 of each half...
but with the playing rosters both coming off NRL comp level fitness, they out enthused and out muscled Australia, particularly at the back end of the first and second halves.
The other key thing was the predictability of the Australian game plan - they knew the switch plays designed to get Inglis coming back through the middle, they were prepared and they smashed him every time he got the ball, almost as it was being passed.
We might have been short of a full strength side but we had 17 on the paddock, just like them and our 17 were dominated, almost to a man.
It will be interesting to see what the make up of the next Australian side is
