The opening Bledisloe Cup test of the year has ended in a dramatic draw.
Photo: PhotoSport
With the match going deep into a wet and windy extra time, the All Blacks and Wallabies battled to a 16-all stalemate in Wellington on Sunday.
Both sides had their chances to win the match in the thrilling dying stages.
Wallabies replacement back Reece Hodge hit the post with a long range penalty which would have sealed an upset victory, while the All Blacks finished the game right on Australia's line but could not find the winning points.
The match was eventually over after 89 minutes when the Wallabies secured a turnover and first-five James O'Connor opted to kick the ball into the stands, which surprisingly for the All Blacks first on home soil for 400 days were not full.
New Zealand led 8-3 after a first half which featured two notable moments for All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane.
Replays showed the Blues midfielder appeared to step on the sideline in the build-up to the opening try for wing Jordie Barrett.
Ioane then looked to have scored a try of his own with the last play before the break, but a sloppy attempt to ground the ball led to the TMO ruling an embarrassing knock-on.
The All Blacks lead was extended soon after the resumption, when halfback Aaron Smith finished off a sharp set-play from a lineout.
But Australia refused to go away, tries to wingers Marika Koroibete and Filipo Dauganu levelling the scores at 13-13 with 15 minutes remaining.
O'Connor's 74th-minute penalty gave the Wallabies the lead for the first time, only for Barrett to respond with his second penalty with a little more than two minutes of normal time to play.
A hectic nine minutes of added time followed, no team able to break the deadlock and take the upper hand into next weekend's second test in Auckland.
The All Blacks coach Ian Foster refused to blame Rieko Ioane for blowing a certain try in the first half.
"It would have been useful (to extend the lead at halftime)," Foster told reporters. "He's (Ioane) feeling pretty frustrated with himself.
"He's a confident young man. He'll learn from that one thing but can also focus on a whole lot of other good things he did in that game too."
Foster added that the dropped ball was not the only error, with the team wasting several scoring opportunities in the first 80 minutes of the match.
They also had chances to close out the game in injury time, including setting up for a drop goal attempt, or capitalising on space they had created out wide.
"If you don't take your chances, they come back to bite you," he said.
"We had chances to win the game in that last 10 minutes and we weren't good enough to execute.
"It's a message to us all that test rugby is back and if you're not good enough then you won't get what you want."