- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The numbers heading into this Saturday’s third Bledisloe are remarkable, and being repeated Infinitum in the lead-up doesn’t make them any less astonishing, so permit me a quick recap:
30 – the years since the Wallabies last beat the All Blacks at Eden Park.
13 – the number of consecutive Tests the Wallabies have lost against the All Blacks at Eden Park since 1986.
19 – the number of consecutive Tests the Wallabies have lost against the All Blacks in New Zealand since they last won there, in 2001.
36 – the number of Tests the All Blacks have not been beaten in at Eden Park against all-comers since going down to France in 1994.
18 – the world record (for a Tier 1 nation) of consecutive Test wins the All Blacks will have racked up if they beat the Wallabies on Saturday.
4 – the number of times the All Blacks have defeated the Wallabies, including the 2015 World Cup final, in their current 17-match winning streak.
146 – the total number of points the All Blacks have scored to the Wallabies’ 47 in those four most recent outings against one another.
1 – the golden opportunity the Wallabies have to blow all of those other numbers out of the water with a win this Saturday.
Any wonder Wallabies coach Michael Cheika was looking so relaxed and sounding so bullish when he fronted media this week.
“Bring it on,” he exhorted. “It’s a great opportunity… I’m so looking forward to getting over there and getting into it. It’ll be great.”
Spoken like a man who has everything, and I mean utterly everything, to gain and nothing to lose – other than a match no one expects him to win.
It’s a coach’s dream scenario, especially one who likes to play the battler, the bucker of insurmountable odds.
He’ll be having an absolute field day getting his troops up for this one.
“A measly 80 bloody minutes is all that stands between you and immortality as the players that did something that hasn’t been done in 30 years,” is something he might say.
“Two halves of rugby is all you’ll have to play to go in, storm their friggin fortress and deny them their cherished world record – again. Imagine the looks on their faces and the anguish in their eyes when they shake your hand after the game?! Imagine the silence of their crowd that sold out the joint to witness a history that you’ve snatched from their grasp? You, and only you can make that happen,” could get a mention.
“ ‘The time it takes to go there and back on the Manly ferry (and a little bit more) is all you have to get it right for to make everyone forget our alarmingly mediocre season,” is something he probably won’t say but might well be thinking.
Of course, the flip side to all this is the enormous motivation the All Blacks will have to win and further cement themselves as the GOAT-iest team of all.
The New Zealanders (as Cheika likes to call them) have a morbid fear of losing any game and this is heightened in Bledisloes, deceased rubber or not. With so much riding on this one that will be ratcheted up to warp factor level on Saturday, especially given it was the Aussies who last lowered their colours, especially, especially given that the Wallabies have recent form as busters of significant All Black winning sequences, having stopped three in their tracks in the last six years.
And you don’t dominate all comers with breathtaking rugby, win lots and lots of games on the trot and attract monikers like the Greatest Team of all Time, by accident.
This particular crop of All Blacks are operating on a unique plane. On a level that appears well beyond any other team playing the sport now, and at any time in its past. In a way that even has their own illustrious predecessors looking up at in awe, including the greatest of all – Richie McCaw.
It was interesting to hear the GOAT’s take on Saturday’s match when asked by ABC’s 7.30 last night.
“The Australians haven’t won there [Eden Park] in 30 years, do you think they might get lucky this weekend?” Leigh Sales asked.
“I hope not! One of the lessons that’s hard to actually understand, [is that] there’s very little between the top teams,” McCaw replied. “You’ve only got to turn up just not quite on your game… and I just look at the comments from the Wallabies coaches this week and they’re pretty damned determined, so if the All Black boys aren’t on the job there’s a chance.”
One that an unusually relaxed Cheika will be priming his men to grab with both hands.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.