By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The All Blacks will look to secure a third consecutive Rugby Championship trophy in Melbourne on Saturday, with victory over Eddie Jones’s winless Wallabies to also keep the Bledisloe Cup in New Zealand hands for another year.
With big wins over Argentina and South Africa, Ian Foster’s side have lifted a gear ahead of the World Cup in France and are unbackable favourites to notch another victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The match doubles as the first of two Bledisloe Cup tests, the annual series between the trans-Tasman nations.
As holders, New Zealand need only win in Melbourne to seal the Bledisloe Cup for a 21st year in succession.
Jones, the last coach to win the coveted trophy for Australia in 2002, will try to work magic to keep the series alive until the second test in Dunedin nest week.
But the Wallabies are up against it.
The All Blacks have brought their strongest available lineup, making only one forced change to the team that humbled South Africa 35-20 in Auckland two weeks ago.
Regular captain Sam Cane is out injured, leaving back row enforcer Ardie Savea in charge and Dalton Papali’i to start at openside flanker.
More than 80,000 fans are expected at the MCG, potentially the biggest rugby crowd in more than a decade in Australia – but black-clad supporters may outnumber those in Wallabies gold.
Home fans have had little to cheer since COVID-19, with the Wallabies losing their last five matches against the All Blacks.
Last year’s Melbourne test, a cliffhanger, ended in heartbreak for the Wallabies and no shortage of acrimony over a contentious referee decision against them for time-wasting.
The optimism that greeted Jones’s arrival this year for his second stint in charge of the Wallabies has all but disappeared following the 43-12 trouncing by a second-string South Africa side in Pretoria and the 34-31 loss to Argentina in Sydney.
Instead, the Wallabies have continued to serve up the same self-destructive, error-prone fare seen under Jones’s predecessor Dave Rennie.
With Australia earning three yellow cards in two matches – compared to the All Blacks’ zero – Foster’s team will look to challenge the Wallabies’ discipline at every chance.
Apart from smashing a team radio in rage during the defeat against Argentina, Jones has taken out his frustrations at the selection table, making seven changes to his starting side.
Exciting rookie Carter Gordon, who was two when Australia last held the Bledisloe Cup, will start at flyhalf next to halfback Tate McDermott, relegating old hands Nic White and Quade Cooper to the bench.
Rough start notwithstanding, Jones’s ebullience remains intact.
“There’s nothing better than winning against New Zealand because you feel the country sinking,” he joked to reporters on Thursday.
“The whole economy goes down so the Prime Minister’s there with his fingers crossed hoping the All Blacks win because he knows the economy will drop off (if) they lose.”
With Jones having an extra week to plan and problem-solve, home fans can at least hope for better from the players.
A win seems a long shot, though, against an All Blacks team peaking at the right time in the World Cup cycle.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Nick Macfie)
