Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup sequel in Sydney is no dead rubber given its Rugby World Cup subplot, with the Wallabies and All Blacks both aiming to land a psychological blow, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.
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After five games without a loss, including a 42-38 win over the Springboks in Perth, since Les Kiss replaced Joe Schmidt in July, the new Wallabies coach and his charges received a reality check at Eden Park last weekend.
The All Blacks, coming off three successive losses to the Boks in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, roared to a 50-19 victory to extend their historic winning streak at their fortress to 54 and retain the Bledisloe Cup, which they’ve held since 2003, for yet another year.
While the silverware is no longer on the line, Saturday’s rematch – which kicks off at 07:00 South African time – remains important for both sides as they will clash at the very same Accor Stadium in the World Cup in a year’s time.
In addition, it’ll serve as a serious test of the All Blacks’ depth. Asafo Aumua, Anton Segner, Ethan Blackadder and Leroy Carter all picked up injuries last weekend and joined the long list of Kiwi casualties after the brutal Greatest Rivalry series.
Most intriguingly, Test two is a tactical and mental examination for the Aussies after having their bubble burst in Auckland. What changes will Kiss conjure up to “return fire”, as he put it, and what areas have room for improvement?
We’ll have to wait and see to find out the answer to the first part of that question, but the second part is clear. So far under Kiss, the Wallabies tend to compete fiercely in the first half before dropping off in the second.
Last weekend, the All Blacks led by just 17-14 at halftime, but blew away their trans-Tasman rivals in the second half, scoring five tries in this period. Nothing but an 80-minute performance will do if they are to bounce back, and if they are to snap their longest Bledisloe Cup losing streak in history, which now sits at 12.
The obvious major work-on for the Wallabies, whose last win over New Zealand was a 24-22 triumph in Brisbane in 2020 masterminded by one Dave Rennie, now mentor of the All Blacks, is in defence after missing a whopping 46 tackles and leaking seven tries last weekend.
The root of this problem, though, was the breakdown. You cannot allow the All Blacks quick ball, and that’s exactly what the Wallabies did. They also gave them far too much space.
It’s imperative for Australia to improve both their ruck and line speeds to slow the Kiwis down at the source and/or sack ball carriers in midfield to stop them from spreading their wings, so to speak, on the edges.
Disappointingly for them, they also lost the aerial battle, which they’d won surprisingly and impressively against the Boks, so they probably would’ve spent time on that as well this week.
Given their recent dominance of this rivalry, the injury-hit All Blacks cannot afford to give the Wallabies what would be a major leg up in this one. Win this clash, and the Wallabies – in the minds of the players and supporters – would wipe away the record losing streak and change the narrative going into the crucial World Cup pool game at the same venue next year.
As such, the Kiwis will be up for this contest and will put in one last big effort to do the double before enjoying a much-needed break ahead of the Northern Hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship.
Prediction: New Zealand by 9.
Suggested Bet: New Zealand -8.5 at 1.86.
Quintin van Jaarsveld is a former MDDA-Sanlam SA Local Sports Journalist of the Year and a former three-time Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal Sports Journalist of the Year. Formerly the sports editor and Outstanding Journalist of the Year award winner at The Fever Media Group, deputy editor at eHowzit, editor at SARugby.com and senior staff writer at Rugby365.com, he boasts over 20 years of experience.
