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Gallen scores for Australia

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Australia inflicted a sixth straight defeat on New Zealand with a 28-12 victory in the Centenary Test in Sydney.

One hundred years to the day since the first meetings between the countries, the hosts virtually wrapped up victory inside the first quarter.

But at least New Zealand were competitive - in stark contrast to the last meeting between these sides in Wellington last year when Australia won by a record 58-0.

The Kangaroos raced into a 22-0 lead with four unanswered tries, as the Kiwis paid for a string of handling errors in the Aussie half and some sloppy tackling in their own.

But it was a piece of magic which opened the floodgates on six minutes, Greg Inglis leaping out of the field of play to flip a ball that had gone beyond the dead ball line back in goal for Mark Gasnier to touch down.

Gasnier quickly had his second, crashing over on the short side of a ruck in the same left-hand corner.

Wobbling

The Kiwis were wobbling but only had themselves to blame for the next two scores, as Paul Gallen and Cameron Smith both shrugged off multiple would-be tacklers to score by the posts.

New Zealand did manage to keep the World Champions scoreless for the last 18 minutes of the half but every time they threatened the Aussie line, they came up with an error.

The Kiwis did get on the board three minutes after the break when Sonny Bill Williams set up Iosia Soliola for a good finish and they had the better of the third quarter.

But with Australia looking almost vulnerable, they came up with the clinching score, Jonathan Thurston's crossfield kick setting up Israel Folou for his third try in two Tests.

Sam Perrett gave the Kiwis the last word with another good finish in the corner, but it was no more than a consolation.

That completed the scoring as the Kangaroos paid a suitable tribute to legendary coach Jack Gibson, who died aged 79 just hours before the kick-off.