This is Australia’s best shot at the Bledisloe Cup in years – but beware an All Blacks side with a ‘point to prove’
· Yahoo Sports
It is rare that any Bledisloe Cup clash with Australia feels a mere sideshow in the broader narrative of a year in New Zealand and, yet, as the trans-Tasman rivals prepare to meet in the first of back-to-back Tests this weekend, it feels somewhat lower key. For New Zealand Rugby (NZR), this has been a challenging year navigating an itinerary that, even by the standards of rugby’s crowded calendar, has barely relented for months. Following on from the Super Rugby Pacific season came home Nations Championship games against France, Italy and Ireland, with little chance to draw breath before the gruelling Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour.
There is still a four-Test European sojourn to come; sprinkle in a smattering of Black Ferns Tests, the NPC and the long-term planning required to address increasing financial pressures and one would forgive a few feeling in need of respite. This, clearly, is no time for that; underlined by a senior figure recently was the excitement that would accompany these two games against the Wallabies – and a nagging fear that their 24-year monopoly on the Bledisloe Cup might come under genuine threat.
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Beauden Barrett starts the first Bledisloe Cup Test in Auckland (Getty)In part, that has to do with the sheer demands of that schedule. The rigours of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series had already accounted for captain Ardie Savea, fly half Ruben Love, centre Billy Proctor and flanker Luke Jacobson when, this week, there was more bad injury news for head coach Dave Rennie to contend with. Richie Mo’unga had been named internally to start in Love’s stead at No 10 before tearing a calf on Tuesday; that it is Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett stepping up as replacements shows the depth that remains but the upheaval seems far from ideal. “It’s probably been the hardest side we’ve had to pick,” Rennie, still new in his tenure, underscored on Thursday.
That there is another long unbeaten streak stretching 32 years and 53 Tests at Auckland’s Eden Park will focus a few All Blacks minds. So, too, what the Wallabies managed against South Africa a fortnight ago – a rotated Springboks it may have been but to survive the chaos and carnage and emerge with a statement success said plenty about the positive strides made in the early days under Les Kiss, and the fearlessness with which Australia are being encouraged to play.
The Wallabies and All Blacks battle for the Bledisloe Cup (Getty)They may see these two games as a golden opportunity to make another declaration of intent with less than a year to go until their home World Cup, and against a team they will encounter in the pick of the pool games at that tournament. “I know they've had a few injuries, but strewth, when you look at that team, it makes it tough," Kiss stressed. "We're going to have to be good, that's for sure, to go out there and put something on that can compete with them. I think this is a team that can step forward and see how close we can take it.”
A squared series, perhaps with a narrow defeat this week and a win in Sydney next, would probably represent progress enough for Kiss as he looks to accelerate the build on Joe Schmidt’s foundations towards 2027. That said, an Australian success might mean more than simply what happens on the field. There is a degree of lingering resentment between the two unions over New Zealand’s turning of the back on the Rugby Championship to press ahead with the South Africa series – with matters not necessarily calmed by suggestions that NZ Rugby could abandon Rugby Australia (RA) and walk away from Super Rugby Pacific as both unions considers the best route forward for ailing club games.
Australia and New Zealand have been close allies but tensions are emerging (Getty)Trans-Tasman tensions erupted again this week with a cross-code flavour as the NRL furiously hit back at legal action over its plans to call the new Papua New Guinea franchise the “Chiefs”, the name used by Super Rugby’s Waikato side since 1996. Some wonder if that may hasten the desire for a second New Zealand-based side in rugby league’s foremost competition; the newly-opened Te Kaha stadium in Christchurch is known to be keen having seen the commercial and sporting success of the NZ Warriors of late. With geopolitics at play – the NRL’s government-backed move into Papua New Guinea comes in part as a response to China’s influence in the south Pacific – one can expect to hear plenty more about the future of both sports over the next 12 months.
Not that that will be occupying the minds of any of those involved in Auckland on Saturday. One would expect Australia to challenge New Zealand’s backfield with the combination of Ryan Lonergan’s kicking game and the aerial super strength of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, again stationed on the wing; New Zealand may feel they can take the contest away in the final quarter in familiar fashion given the relatively callow nature of the visiting bench. For all that it might feel like the All Blacks’ aura has been lost of late, they have never enjoyed a run of consecutive successes as long as the current 11-game streak against Australia – and, in Rennie, are overseen by a man jilted by the Wallabies months out from the last World Cup.
All Blacks coach Dave Rennie may have a point to prove against his former employers (Getty)“I’ve got no regrets,” Rennie nonetheless insisted. “We’re highly motivated, but it’s not about me. No one wants to be part of the first team for a long time to lose at Eden Park, or lose the Bledisloe. We've come out of South Africa. We've got a bit of a point to prove there, and we're up against really worthy opponent, and we know we're going to have to be at our best."