The Wallabies travel to Eden Park for the third game in the Bledisloe Cup series. Here’s my prediction and some thoughts around the game.
First here is a link to my round-up of all the action from around the globe last weekend.
Here’s my 1 Line Prediction, read below for my full thoughts on the game.
New Zealand v Australia
The All Blacks go into this game knowing that they will claim the T1 longest winning streak if they win. We haven’t heard them playing this down at all, there’s been no talk of it’s just another game or taking it game at a time. They have embraced the fact that they will be making history. It’s similar when you get to a Rugby World Cup final, you can’t say it’s just another game because it isn’t. You have to learn to embrace the pressure that comes with these big situations. So I think that this is a little Rugby World Cup final test for the players and we might see some players who have been playing well so far not cope. It could tell the coaches a lot about some people.
Having said all that the All Blacks are the run away Rugby Championship winners with 6 TBP wins and the closest any of the other teams got was 19 points. Cleary they go in as favourites and the bookies are trying to stop people backing them it’s that easy money. Yes my prediction is that the All Blacks are going to win and comfortably.
Now enough about them and let’s have a chat about the Wallabies. With Genia being out there will be no European based players in the Wallabies squad. As they rebuild towards the Rugby World Cup in Japan I think that’s a good thing. A lot of people have been putting the boot into the Wallabies but they have blooded a lot of new players and it has been a generational change for them. They haven’t had the steady coaching structure to prepare for that and we have seen a drop in performances. But they did start to look better against the Springboks and Pumas and it’s going to be interesting to see how much of that they can carry into this game. I still think they will lost by 20 odd points but I want to see them in the game for the first 50-60 minutes.
New Zealand by 20
DrivingMaul Newsletter
Don’t miss a post or video by signing up for the weekly DrivingMaul newsletter.
