All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said it was a superb team performance, but they would need to repeat that again in the final in a week's time.
"It was awesome. We realised we were going to have to front up and we had to be on the job for 80 minutes. Every single man did their best out there," he said.
"We're very happy with that, we've got next week to look forward to and I'm very proud of the way the guys fronted up.
"I thought our back three were outstanding, the balls that came to them they looked after very well and they put kicks in front of us at the right time. The intensity at the breakdown was key, we gave them something to work with.
"It was a pretty good performace tonight but we won't get carried away, we will need it again next week."
Australia coach Robbie Deans said the All Blacks were too good.
"The All Blacks showed tonight they're more than capable of winning the Cup. They're intense, well versed, hungry and they'll take some stopping."
