Carter lands crucial blow on All Blacks return

Australia 18 New Zealand 19:All Blacks outhalf Dan Carter celebrated his return to the side with a penalty two minutes from full-time to seal a thrilling Tri-Nations in Sydney as his side retained the Bledisloe Cup.

Carter, playing his first Test match this year after returning from injury, showed why he is regarded as one of deadliest kickers to ever play the game when he held his nerve to cooly slot the match-winning penalty at a packed Olympic stadium after Australia wing Lachie Turner was penalised for failing to release the ball.

The Australians, who are yet to win a match in this year's Tri-Nations, led for almost all of the contest after their own outhalf Matt Giteau produced a flawless display of goal-kicking but one again came up agonisingly short after conceding the late penalty.

Giteau landed all six of his shots at goal and the home side also had a chance to snatch victory at the death only to cough up the ball just metres from the New Zealand line.

The Wallabies had looked to be in control after opening up a 12-3 lead at half-time but failed to contain the All Blacks in the second half.

New Zealand scored the only try through replacement centre Ma'a Nonu and dominated possession and territory as the Australians struggled in the scrums, replacing tighthead prop Al Baxter after half an hour.

The first half failed to reach any great heights as both sides failed to deliver on their promise to play an expansive running game.

Instead, the opening term was dominated by relentless kicking and ferocious exchanges, with three players needing the blood-bin inside the first 20 minutes.

The All Blacks opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a Carter penalty but the Australians drew level four minutes later when Giteau landed his first shot at goal.

Giteau put the Wallabies ahead with a second penalty after 10 minutes then slotted a third on the half hour and a fourth after the siren when scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan pulled off a try-saving tackle on Australia lock Nathan Sharpe to give the home side a handy nine-point lead at the interval.

The match burst into life in the second half when Wallabies number eight Richard Brown was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on prop Owen Franks.

Carter and Giteau traded early penalties and the All Blacks had two disallowed tries, the first by Carter because of a forward pass and the second by Cowan for obstruction.

New Zealand's persistence finally paid off when Nonu combined with wing Sitiveni Sivivatu to score in the left corner and Carter landed the difficult conversion to put his team 16-15 with 16 minutes remaining.

Australia regained the lead immediately after when Giteau slotted his sixth penalty before the All Blacks launched one last attack in the final few minutes.

Carter missed with an attempted drop goal 35 metres out but made no mistake when gifted a second chance in the 78th minute after a mix-up between Turner and Adam-Ashley Cooper at the back.