The Canterbury Crusaders continued the misery for Australian teams this Super Rugby season with a clinical bonus-point 41-22 win over the New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney on Sunday.
The benchmark Kiwi outfit scored six tries to three for their 10th straight win over Australian opposition to remain unbeaten and top of the New Zealand conference after six games this season.
Although messy at times, the Crusaders had too much attacking firepower for the Waratahs and made it a black weekend for Australian teams, who lost all their four Super Rugby games against New Zealand opposition.
So far this season New Zealand teams have an 11-0 record over Australian opposition and are 33-3 in their past 36 trans-Tasman encounters.
The Crusaders led 19-10 at half-time but the Waratahs made a game of it early in the second half with tries from Jake Gordon and Taqele Naiyaravoro got them to within four points 26-22 after 52 minutes.
But the Kiwis weathered the storm and pulled clear in the final stages with tries from Bryn Hall and Ben Funnell to claim a try-scoring bonus point.
"We were good at times, but we made a few mistakes in the first half and they came back and kept putting pressure on us and got points off our mistakes," Crusaders skipper Sam Whitelock said.
"They got into our face and at times we spilled the ball, knocked it on and that has been their strength this year.
"We knew we had to pick it up and we had to work hard and the boys did that."
The Crusaders have now won 13 of their last 15 games against the Waratahs.
"We were really strong for 50-60 minutes, I thought with a lineout seven points down we were going to score and get even but the Crusaders were really strong in the last 20 minutes," Waratahs skipper Michael Hooper said.
The Waratahs once again paid the price for an undisciplined defensive display, missing 24 tackles in the first half alone and conceding two soft tries from lineout losses.
Languishing with only eight points from six games in the Australian conference, things don't get any easier for the Waratahs, who travel to Wellington next to take on the defending champions Hurricanes on Friday.
The 2014 champions will be hoping for Wallaby fly-half Bernard Foley to overcome his ongoing concussion issues despite 21-year-old Mack Mason making a decent debut against the Crusaders.
The Crusaders will have next weekend off.