Rugby: Australia wins Bledisloe in last minute heart-breaker

4:30 PM

The Wallabies have beaten the All Blacks 24-23 with a last minute penalty in this afternoon's Bledisloe Cup decider in Wellington.

New Zealand maintained their first half lead for all but the last 30 seconds of the game when Wallaby Captain John Eales kicked a penalty from right in front of the posts.

The win means Australia have retained the Bledisloe Cup but it also throws the Tri-Nations series wide open.

The Wallabies dominated play initially - scoring two tries within the first 20 minutes of the game.

Wing Stirling Mortlock scored and converted the first but failed to convert the next try of teammate Joe Roff.

All Black fullback Christian Cullen came back swiftly with two tries, both converted by Andrew Mehrtens.

Mehrtens missed his first two penalty attempts but sank the third which took him ahead of Grant Fox's point-scoring record of 640 and put the All Blacks in front 17-15.

The lead dipped back to the Wallabies after a successful penalty by Mortlock.

However, in the dying minutes another penalty was awarded to New Zealand and Mehrtens made no mistake.

The pace slowed in the second half, with neither side scoring any tries.

Mehrtens kicked one penalty as did Mortlock, making it 23-21 to the All Blacks ten minutes before the final whistle.

New Zealand kept possession and were attacking the Australian line right up until those fateful last 30 seconds of injury time.