Dave Rennie was "rapt" after Australia held on for a thrilling 24-22 victory over New Zealand a week after slumping to a record defeat.

Both sides had a man sent off in the first half at Suncorp Stadium, the All Blacks losing Ofa Tu'ungafasi before Wallabies debutant Lachlan Swinton saw red.

New Zealand retained the Bledisloe Cup with one match to spare in the first game of the Tri Nations series at ANZ Stadium last Saturday, hammering their trans-Tasman rivals by a record margin with a 43-5 rout.

Rennie praised the character shown by the men in green and gold seven days later as they secured a seventh straight win at the Brisbane venue.

"I'm rapt," the New Zealander said. "There was a lot of character shown today. We said we wanted a response after last weekend, and we got it."

Tom Wright scored an early try and Taniela Tupou crossed late on before Tupou Vaa'I finished to give the All Blacks hope in the closing stages, but they fell short.

Rennie's decision to play Reece Hodge at fly-half raised eyebrows, but he booted 14 points as Australia restored some pride to give Rennie a first win since he replaced Michael Cheika.

"We talked about scoreboard pressure and we hadn't been able to do that in previous games, and Hodgy kicked pretty well and we got our noses in front and were able to apply a bit more through that," Rennie added.

"We've got a long way to go, we're going to get a lot better, but it's good to get a result like this because it helps with a bit of belief.

"It's only one day, but we'll have a couple of quiet ones to celebrate."