Wallabies need to end 20-year run of All Blacks success to seize Bledisloe Cup

The Wallabies are well aware of their horrible record against the All Blacks over the past 20 years but feel something special is building.

James Slipper says the Wallabies aren’t the ‘finished product’. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Wallabies co-captain James Slipper knows his new-look team will have to put in a “massive shift” to end a near unrivalled run of Bledisloe Cup dominance from New Zealand and said coach Eddie Jones’s unbridled optimism had rubbed off on the Australians.

The numbers are just plain horrible and should diminish expectations completely for the MCG showdown.

But the shocking recent record of the Australians, who have lost the past six clashes with the Kiwis, eight of the last 10, 17 of the last 20, and 36 of the previous 40 and haven’t hoisted the Bledisloe Cup since 2002, didn’t dimmer the glint in coach Eddie Jones’s eye when he named an incredibly young starting line-up.

Nor did it diminish All Blacks coach Ian Foster’s expectation of a bold showing from the home team, knowing the hard-sell Jones had done the previous day about causing a “shock”.

“He’ll have a very hungry team,” Foster said of Jones and the Wallabies, having deflected his rival coach’s barbs about All Blacks losses sinking the entire economy of New Zealand.

“It looks quite a big, physical team, particularly when you look at the bench. It looks like they’re going to introduce a bit of size through that, so it’s a good challenge.”

Eddie Jones has the Wallabies poised to ‘shock’ the All Blacks. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Jones also coached England to a World Cup win over the All Blacks in 2019 and was adamant this week that while past results may not mean much, “my history against the All Blacks matters. It’s always the biggest game”.

“And when you’re playing against them, not many people think you can win. That’s the opportunity for us,” he said.

Belief can be a big driver for change, and Jones is trying to harness that with his team that will look markedly different from the one that lost to Argentina in Sydney that looked different again from the one that lost to South Africa.

Melbourne Rebels teammates Carter Gordon and Andrew Kellaway have been given jobs at five-eighth and fullback respectively among seven changes to the line-up.

That’s all been part of what Jones, in his second stint as Wallabies coach, called an “orientation period”.

“I’m still getting to know the players and the players are still getting to know me,” Jones said.

“There’s a been a little bit of an orientation period and we needed to find the best balance.”

The Wallabies team out to topple the All Blacks. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Slipper, who will start from the bench as part of Jones’s “two-tiered plan” to give players exposure before the World Cup in France, said a last-gasp loss to the All Blacks in Melbourne in 2022, undone by a dodgy refereeing decision when Bernard Foley was pinged for wasting time with a minute to go, was motivation to turn the tables.

But he said below-standard showings in those back-to-back losses under the new regime weighed more heavily on the players to “be better”.

“We are trying to change that in the way we train, understanding what we are doing then training it out of ourselves. It’s a bit of a work in progress, but we’re confident we are on the right track,” Slipper said.

“It’s a two-horse race and the odds don’t stack up when you have lost 20 in a row. That’s on us as players and something we are trying to rectify.

“We know what’s in front of us. We’re going to have to put in one hell of a shift to get a result.

“We’re trying to build something. We have changed what we are doing in terms of staff, coaches, there are new players in the squad.

“I am not going to stand here and say we are the finished product, but we’re going to work bloody hard to be.”

Originally published as Wallabies need to end 20-year run of All Blacks success to seize Bledisloe Cup