1
Report: All Blacks set for mid-week Bledisloe Cup clash against Wallabies
By Sam Smith
The Wallabies are reportedly set to host the All Blacks in a rare mid-week Bledisloe Cup clash in Australia later this year.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the trans-Tasman foes will do battle in the first match of a two-test series at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on September 15.
That match, which falls on a Thursday, has been scheduled to be played during the week rather than the weekend in a bid to avoid clashes with NRL and AFL playoff matches.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground will host the AFL preliminary final on September 17, while the Melbourne Storm could feature in an NRL semi-final at AAMI Park that same weekend.
As such, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Rugby Australia [RA] sought to move its sole Bledisloe Cup fixture from September 17 to September 15, which New Zealand Rugby [NZR] has reportedly agreed to.
That would make the match the first mid-week Bledisloe Cup test since 1994, when Wallabies legend George Gregan famously denied All Blacks great Jeff Wilson a match-winning try with a last-gasp tackle in Sydney.
The match will also be the first Bledisloe Cup test to be staged in Melbourne since 2010, when the All Blacks beat the Wallabies 49-28 in a fixture that doubled as a Tri-Nations clash.
NZR has already confirmed the second Bledisloe Cup test will be held at Eden Park in Auckland on September 24.
The Bledisloe Cup, which will be contested as part of the Rugby Championship, has reverted to a two-test series this year after having been a three-test, and sometimes four-test, series - outside of World Cup years - since 2006.
The All Blacks and Wallabies will both play the Springboks and Los Pumas in their preceding Rugby Championship matches, while the New Zealanders will host Ireland in a three-test home series in July.
Australia will simultaneously take on England in a three-test series on home soil in three months' time.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
English club target Liam Williams for Premiership return
3
Rassie Erasmus holds the solution to England's Jamie George conundrum
4
The Springboks have something you don't have
5
Latest Comments
This France team is as good as they were when they went into the World Cup as favorites. Have gone through a rebuild of confidence and rediscovered that form.
Neither England nor Ireland will trouble this team in the 6N. That’s my prediction.
And I guess about time too. Considering that France has won but one 6N title in 6 seasons despite being the best French team for generations thriving off the platform which is the Top 14.
They must just beware of peaking too soon and going to Australia over confident.
Which is also why I thinks it’s absolutely bonkers that France isn’t sending there best players to New Zealand next year. Yes, it isn’t Australia, but getting some SH travel experience makes more sense than not.
Go to commentsI'm not meaning to criticise the players, it's a professional game, this is their livelihood so all power to them. I am aiming criticism at the selectors. Italy is the perfect opportunity to give players of the future a game such as Lakai, Love etc. There is a finite number of tests until the next world cup to develop the team, we are wasting one today.
Go to comments