The Wallabies entered with promise, but had been hurt by the loss of talismanic fly-half Stephen Larkham to a shoulder injury before the series.

In a closely fought match, a late try by Keven Mealamu gave the All Blacks both the win and a key bonus point.

They had enough depth to shrug off what would have been a devastating loss to most other national teams—an injury to arguably their best player, fly-half Dan Carter during the win in Sydney, that kept him out of the tests at home against the Springboks and the Wallabies.

The All Blacks would punctuate their season with a "Grand Slam" over all four Home Nations on their November tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Carter would come back for the Grand Slam tour, and was selected as 2005 World Player of the Year by the International Rugby Board.

They would spiral downward to their longest Test losing streak since 1969, which would cost head coach Eddie Jones his job.