Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- Australia beat New Zealand for the first time in 11 attempts in the fourth and final 2010 Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong on Saturday.
A last-minute try and conversion by Australia winger James O'Connor sealed a hard-fought 26-24 win.
With both teams fielding strong line-ups, it was the first win for the Wallabies against the All Blacks -- who won the first three Bledisloe Cup matches this season -- since July 2008.
The All Blacks, the top-ranked team in the world, had seemingly been in control of until the very last minute. Plenty of running rugby was on display but Australia began with a greater pace and purpose to go 12- 0 up after 24 minutes with tries from Quade Cooper and Adam Ashely-Coooper.
With Tri-Nations champions New Zealand looking off the pace and failing to get out of their half until the 20th minute, only missed kicks from Austrailan fullback Kurtley Beale and center Matt Giteau meant the Wallabies were not further ahead.
Both teams showed a willingness to run the ball from all positions, leading to some open play more reminiscent of the Sevens rugby played each year in the Hong Kong Stadium.
However, Australia couldn't keep control on the game and their scrum suffered as the All Blacks regained a degree of sharpness and composure.
First scrum-half Jimmy Cowan dived under the posts for a converted try before Cory Jane's try leveled the score, with a Dan Carter conversion putting the All Blacks ahead 14-12. A sucessful penalty by fly-half Carter, playing his first match for New Zealand since surgery on his ankle, put his team up 17-12 at halftime.
New Zealand stretched their lead to 12 points soon after the restart with a try by Ma'a Nonu. Australia continued to play with pace and hit back with a Drew Mitchell try on 60 minutes after a break from Beale and a sprint to the line before the covering defenders could reach him. O'Connor took over kicking duties as Giteau had been substituted, becoming his team's third kicker of the game.
CNN
