In a curtain-raiser for the Wallabies and All Blacks Bledisloe Cup match, the Wallaroos were unable to break a 13-match drought against their New Zealand rivals in a 11-tries-to-none romping.

A 31-3 scoreline at half-time gave reason to think this would be the biggest defeat-ever margin between the two nations and that is what prevailed with Australia's 64-0 loss in 1995 equalled in terms of the final gap.

It was, however, the most points Australia has ever conceded against New Zealand.

In recent matches, the Wallaroos have come within eight, 35, 27 and six points of the Black Ferns but in front of a home crowd the hosts lit up the field with an impressive all-round display, with the highlight being fullback Selica Winiata's four tries.

Nonetheless, the match itself was another great occasion to expose the women's game, with thousands of keen onlookers catching at least the second half.

Black Ferns five-eighth Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali had a fine game, controlling the tempo nicely as chief playmaker and even dived over for one of New Zealand's five tries in the second half.

Despite some early front-foot ball from the Australians, New Zealand took four minutes to take an early lead through captain Fiao'o Fa'amausili.

Wallaroos fullback Sarah Riordan was unable to ground the ball in goal, which resulted in Fa'amausili charging through to swoop on a loose ball on the ground.

Australia stayed in the contest with a penalty to captain Ash Hewson to reduce the deficit to four points but that blew back out when Black Ferns inside-centre Chelsea Alley and halfback Kendra Cocksedge crossed in quick succession.

The rise and rise of Australia's women's sevens squad after their Rio success is close to the best thing rugby has got going for it in this country, so it will be interesting to see whether such an investment will be made with the fifteen-a-side team.

They showed potential but questions will no doubt be asked in the coming years as to whether they can become as skilled and competitive as the women in the truncated code against their Kiwi rivals.

There are noticeable similarities between New Zealand's best men and women rugby players. Their skill levels are far and beyond any opposition they play, particularly in the offloading department.

The Black Ferns also taught Australia the value of drawing a defender rather than passing instantly to get the ball in the wider channels as they created overlap after overlap.  `

Their physicality was also another impressive string to their bow as Australia's slightly smaller defenders were palmed off at ease when the Black Ferns ran hard up the middle of the field.

Australian tight-head prop Louise Burrows was shown a yellow card in the 30th minute and then sent off for a second infringement in the 72nd minute but it mattered little as New Zealand once again prevailed at a venue that may well continue to haunt Australian rugby for many more years to come.