The Wallabies finally ended a 10-match losing streak against the All Blacks on Saturday night, winger James O'Connor heroically scoring a try after the siren then booting a wide conversion for a 26-24 victory in Hong Kong.

Australia looked to have blown another good start after leading 12-0 early and then putting in an error-riddled second half before a final attacking fling saw O'Connor cross in the 82nd minute and then coolly slot home.

The youngster's heroics were reminiscent of Kurtley Beale's hoodoo-busting penalty goal in Bloemfontein just weeks ago and the breakthrough confirms the Wallabies have turned a corner as they head to Europe to further hone their build-up for next year's Rugby World Cup.

The Australians celebrated rapturously as the kick went over after throwing off a monkey which had clung to their backs since July 2008.

The win is just their second over New Zealand since coach Robbie Deans took charge.

Again the Australians took a good lead - 12-0 after 23 minutes - and again they let it slip to trail 17-12 at the break before cruelling most of their second half opportunities.

They scored four tries to three and O'Connor was the only Australian goalkicker who looked possible of making the crucial conversion after failures by Beale and Matt Giteau.

Australia began brightly and, after being unable to convert their territory to points when Beale missed two penalty goal attempts, scored the first two tries of the match through Quade Cooper in the ninth minute and Adam Ashley-Cooper in the 23rd.

But converted tries to All Blacks halfback Jimmy Cowan in the 31st minute and winger Cory Jane three minutes later put NZ in front 14-12 for the first time in the match.

It was 24-12 when All Blacks centre Ma'a Nonu, who had wreaked havoc all night, ran around Stephen Moore to score in the 54th minute after a strong Richie McCaw bust.

Australia hit back when Beale made a bust from a scrum, capitalising on an All Blacks defender slipping on the suspect Hong Kong Stadium playing surface, and offloading for Drew Mitchell to score out wide in the 61st minute.

O'Connor became the Wallabies' third kicker and converted from out wide to make it 24-19.

The Wallabies put a final attacking fling together, which looked to have been repelled by the NZ defence ,before O'Connor found enough space to weave his way through and touch down.

A crowd of 26,210 turned up to the 38,000-seat venue for the second Bledisloe clash in Hong Kong.

In total, Australia's goalkickers managed just three kicks from eight attempts.

O'Connor said he'd practised the scenario at training.

"Robbie's said a fair few times 'this is the last kick to win the game' and I think that's the only one I've hit," the 20-year-old Western Force star said.

"I just went through my motions and my little triggers that I've been working on and it was just like every other kick." Deans said he'd had complete confidence in O'Connor, who had put his hand up earlier in the match when the previous kickers began getting the wobbles.

"James is one of those blokes who wants the ball in those moments as you saw with his carry (for the try to lock the scores up at 24-24) and that's what you want.

"The bloke who's got the ball you want to want to have the ball."

The Wallabies fly to London on Sunday night full of confidence before heading to Cardiff for next weekend's Test against Wales.

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