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The star players, key facts and who will win: All you need to know about All Blacks vs Wallabies
By AAP
A GUIDE TO THE BLEDISLOE CUP BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND:
When: Sunday, 2pm AEDT/4pm NZT
Where: Eden Park, Auckland
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Overall: Played 191, All Blacks 133 wins, Wallabies 50 wins, Draws 8.
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
2020: All Blacks 16 dr Wallabies 16 at Sky Stadium, Wellington
2019: All Blacks 36 bt Wallabies 0 at Eden Park, Auckland
2019: Wallabies 47 bt All Blacks 26 at Optus Stadium, Perth
2018: All Blacks 37 bt Wallabies 20 at Yokohama Stadium, Tokyo
2018: All Blacks 40 bt Wallabies 12 at Eden Park, Auckland
THE COACHES
Dave Rennie: Joins Michael Cheika, Robbie Deans, Eddie Jones and Rod Macqueen as Australian coaches to not lose in their first test against the All Blacks. Only Macqueen and Jones went undefeated in the second.
Ian Foster: Already an unpopular choice as New Zealand coach, Foster is the first All Blacks coach since Laurie Mains in 1992 to not win his opening test.
KEY WALLABIES
Ned Hanigan
The scruffy-haired Hanigan has won over Rennie with his training efforts. The lock-cum-flanker is hopefully part of the answer to the Wallabies dodgy lineout.
Nic White
The halfback is expecting the All Blacks to come hard for him after the damage he caused in the first test with his sniping around the ruck and clever kicking game.
Brandon Paenga-Amosa
The other piece of the lineout puzzle, the Reds rake replaces Folau Fainga'a who paid the price for three lost lineouts in the first half in Wellington.
KEY ALL BLACKS
Beauden Barrett
Superstar fullback Barrett returns after an achilles injury looking to add to his tally of 11 tries against Australia, with nine in his past six tests.
Richie Mo'unga
Mo'unga led the All Blacks in run metres (94) last week but also made the equal-most errors in the contest so expect a more polished performance in game II.
Scott Barrett
The versatile forward returns from a four-month injury lay-off which saw him miss the entire Super Rugby Aotearoa season. The last time he faced the Wallabies he earned a red card.
THE STATS
- While the Wallabies have not beaten the All Blacks at Eden Park in 34 years they did beat Wales there in the 2011 World Cup bronze final.
- Playing their eighth draw last week, the All Blacks have always won the next test between these sides.
- The Wallabies have lost by an average margin of 25 points across their past eight tests at Eden Park since 2011.
THE TIP
All Blacks by 7 points.
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Latest Comments
Agreed. And I don't have much more to say on it, but I had been having one thought that sprang to mind at the tail of this discussion, and that is that it's not all about Razor.
It's not about any coach being "right". I think a lot of selections can become defense and while it doesn't really apply here I really enjoyed that Andy Farrell just gave into the public demands and changed out his team for the change that had been asked for. Like why not? This is the countries team, keep them engaged. The whole reason i've only just finished watching the game was because I wasn't interested in watching any of the selected players against a team like Italy (still actually enjoyed the first half with the contest Italy made of it).
Faz leap frogs a younger half back into start. He hands the golden child the game over July's golden child. He gives an old winger a go, a new flanker and hooker. None of them really did any good, certainly not enough to suggest they should have been promoted above others, but who cares? You won, and you gave the country what they wanted, that's all that matters after all. It's for the country, not the one in charge who thinks they have to have their own pied piper tune playing.
Go to commentsAs Naas would say... A win is a win.
It was not perfect and at times frustrating. All 3 tests were not the best by the Boks and they still found ways to win.
Rassie would have noted the sloppyness at times and silly mistakes. The 9's made amateur handling mistakes when clearing the rucks in all 3 tests.
Once the "stupid" mistakes are eliminated, this Bok team will be very very hard to beat.
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