The All Blacks have put aside a nightmare week plagued by sex scandals to crush the Wallabies 54-34 in a record-setting start to the Bledisloe Cup.
The rampant world champions piled on eight tries – including six in the first half alone – in romping to their highest-ever total against Australia.
The stunning win followed the early departure of married All Black Jerome Kaino after explosive reports emerged he had an affair with an Australian model.
Aaron Smith (pictured) of the All Blacks looks on during The Rugby Championship Bledisloe Cup match following a week of sex scandal revelations
The All Blacks crushed the Wallabies 54-34 in the first game (pictured) of the Bledisloe Cup
Star Kiwi halfback Aaron Smith showed no sign of stress on the field, running riot in the first half and flicking a perfect back pass to set up a try early in the second.
His composed performance followed a Daily Mail Australia report that revealed the truth behind his disabled toilet tryst with a lawyer who was not his girlfriend.
The contest was over at halftime with the All Blacks leading 40-6 at the break after tryscoring doubles to Reiko Ioane and Ryan Crotty, further five-pointers to Liam Squire and Sonny Bill Williams and five conversions to Beauden Barrett.
Michael Hooper (pictured) of the Wallabies looked dejected after an All Blacks try
Israel Folau of the Wallabies broke away to score a try during the match at ANZ Stadium
The onslaught continued with the All Blacks’ seventh and eighth tries in the opening minutes of the second half as the Wallabies trailed 54-6.
A crowd of just 54,846 fans – the lowest-ever for a Bledisloe battle at ANZ Stadium – were witnessing one of the Wallabies’ lowest-ever performances.
Consolation replies to Curtis Rona on debut, Tevita Kuridrani, Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau flattered the Wallabies, who were outclassed in every facet of play.
If history is any guide, the Bledisloe Cup will remain in New Zealand hands for a 15th straight year with the Wallabies having never won a series after losing the first match at home.
The rampant world champions piled on eight tries – including six in the first half alone – in romping to their highest-ever total against Australia
Liam Squire of the All Blacks is tackled by Rory Arnold of the Wallabies are pictured
The two sides square off again next Saturday in Dunedin with Michael Cheika’s demoralised troops needing to somehow conjure a first win across the Tasman since 2001 to keep the series alive before game three in Brisbane in October.
The win comes after news broke on Saturday All Black Jerome Kaino returned home to deal with a ‘personal matter’ after explosive claims emerged he had a torrid affair with an Australian ex-model.
New Zealand Rugby confirmed the player would be returning to New Zealand on Saturday.
Kaino’s wife Diana wrote ‘Devastated’ on Facebook on Saturday morning before deleting the post.
According to a close friend of the 24-year-old Canberra woman, Kaino met her in hotels in Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland for sex, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Explosive claims have emerged that Jerome Kaino (pictured, right) cheated on his wife Diana (pictured, left)
A close friend has told a newspaper that 24-year-old Canberra ex-model Tara Pokarier (pictured) met Kaino for sex in hotels around Australia
Tara Pokarier allegedly first met the married rugby star in Auckland last year, telling the friend ‘it was a purely sexual encounter’ afterwards.
The former model was reportedly crushed when she found out the American Samoan-born rugby star was married to wife Diana and had children.
‘She was absolutely devastated when she realised he had a wife and kids,’ her friend told the newspaper.
The All Blacks have this week also been struggling to contain Aaron Smith’s sex scandal, which was reignited when Daily Mail Australia revealed the truth behind his disabled toilet tryst in an exclusive story.
The woman involved in the airport encounter shared text messages proving a two year affair and attempts by Smith to cover up the extent of their affair.
New Zealand Rugby has since reopened the investigation into the the toilet sex scandal.
Ms Pokarier (pictured) allegedly told her friend their relationship was ‘purely sexual’ after meeting the All Blacks star in an Auckland hotel
The Facebook conversations revealed by Daily Mail Australia showed the pair’s affair had been going on for two years before the airport toilet cubicle incident, having met at a Dunedin gym.
But in the days after it became public the woman was hit by a flurry of vitriolic abuse online.
Despite the seriousness of the threats the woman kept quiet, saying she feared ending the champion halfback’s career and hurting the All Blacks if she spoke up.
And that evidently was also the concern of Smith after video of the toilet encounter emerged.
Seemingly scared that the woman may back down on her earlier promise to not go public, Smith offered her money to buy her silence, she claims.
The scandal comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Aaron Smith (pictured with girlfriend Teagan) lied about the disabled toilet sex affair
The woman (pictured) claims Smith offered her money to lie about their affair under oath
When she rejected his request to sign an affidavit denying the pair had ever had sex because it was illegal and would endanger her career, he opened his checkbook.
‘He acknowledged that he did understand it was wrong, but he said: “Look I really need this… I feel bad asking but would it help if I compensated you financially?”,’ she said.
‘I understand he was just really desperate at the time for this not to come out.’
An All Blacks spokesman refused to comment on the story at a press conference on Thursday, while also barring Daily Mail Australia from the media event.
The salacious Facebook messages obtained by Daily Mail Australia show Smith had begged for sex in parks and ‘good luck’ sex before games.
Smith begged the woman to keep to the story he had told his partner Ms Voykovich (right)
In proposing their toilet liaison he asked for a ‘special toilets f***’, saying the pair had to be ‘sneaky’ as his All Black teammates were nearby set to fly out to South Africa.
Smith, 28, was suspended by the All Blacks and issued a tearful apology after he was caught following the toilet cubicle ‘incident’.
At the time, a visibly shaken Smith said he had made a ‘huge mistake, a huge error in judgement’, and management decided to send him home from the South Africa tour and suspend him for one game as punishment.
The star halfback was named to start for the All Blacks in the opening test of the Bledisloe Cup series against the Wallabies at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Saturday.
Smith’s partner Tegan Voykovich has stood by him throughout the scandal.