All Blacks hold on to Bledisloe as Wallabies hang on to sliver of hope

The hope was a bit like the afternoon sun that caught that sliver of scalp between Scott Robertson’s blonde part. Maybe the All Blacks coach might get burnt in his very first Bledisloe Cup.

The pressure was on them, after all. Wasn’t it? Because it’s one thing to play well against the Springboks in South Africa. There is respect in losing away to the World Cup champions, but, if anything, that only enhances the expectation they should deal with the Wallabies as they do this time every year.

The press in New Zealand says there is pressure. The dynamics of world rugby are changing and the All Blacks are no longer the impregnable force they once were. The scrutiny across the Tasman includes critiques of Robertson’s selections (apparently not experimental enough) and of New Zealand Rugby’s strict policy largely prohibiting the selection of overseas-based players to the national team (no longer fit for purpose).

In Australia, the narrative is mostly that there is simply room for (a lot of) improvement. That sometimes a good flogging, like the one by the Pumas two weeks ago, is the first step towards the best kind of response. Key players have returned from injury. And quite possibly the Wallabies will prefer the All Blacks’ style of play – their inclination to move the ball more – over the bigger bodies of Argentina and South Africa?

And if you examine the cold, hard data, both sides have dropped back-to-back Tests against the Springboks and lost once to Argentina, and both enter this match 1-3 this season. Results wise, their form is identical. Is this not reason enough to be optimistic?

All Blacks replacement fullback Will Jordan made a break before anyone realised the consequences of his presence.Credit: Getty

Every time the Bledisloe Cup rolls around, there are reasons to hope. New ways of spinning every sorry situation into opportunity. These new and creative reasons to believe bring out the punters every series. Even those who would, at this point in their Wallabies fandom, rather pluck out their eyelashes one by one than witness another monstrosity or middling performance to go with their tepid beer, come in the tens of thousands.

But then you remember that the last coach to have helped Australia lift this highly coveted trophy, back in 2002, was actually Eddie Jones, and there is an irony somewhere in there that you can’t quite place, but still does not sound so great.

And then the All Blacks perform the Kapa O Pango Haka, a version usually saved for bigger Tests and rarely sighted for the Wallabies in Sydney, and the goosebumps rise on both sides of the divide, but for very different reasons.

And you hadn’t even thought that Will Jordan moving to fullback in place of the ill Beauden Barrett might be consequential until he has glided past Rob Valetini and Angus Bell when the match has barely started. At least the hope in Santa Fe lasted longer than 90 seconds.

That’s all it takes for all those narratives to fade. If you weren’t quite there then, you might have been helped along by the turnovers and general lack of defence, physicality and set-piece control. Hope was no longer a sentiment at the 25th minute, when the All Blacks scored and converted their fourth try, and had racked up more than a point a minute to propel this latest instalment of All Blacks retain the Bledisloe into drinking-game areas.

But the second half was when it got topsy-turvy again. When earlier glimpses of promise turned into an unlikely fightback. When Fraser McReight was on fire and Noah Lolesio had his eye and his boot in, and the visitors go down to 13 men late in the second half as Matt Faessler and Tom Wright ran in late tries.

And maybe something is missing from this All Blacks outfit after all? Shouldn’t they be up by 60 points? How have they just held on by three? Maybe next year really will be different?

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