Editorial: All Blacks v Wallabies Bledisloe Cup - Some games count more than others

Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones. Photo / Photosport

Opinion

EDITORIAL

The thing about being an All Black is you have to win every game.

You’re not merely expected to win every game. You have to win.

When the highly rated Springboks were unceremoniously dumped by Ian Foster’s men at Mt Smart a fortnight ago, they would have been gutted. Likewise, if they should lose against the All Blacks at Twickenham next month in the last hit-out before the Rugby World Cup, the big fellas in green won’t be happy.

Eddie Jones’ Wallabies will want to win tonight against the All Blacks. But they know they don’t have to.

In a Rugby World Cup year, you only need to beat the All Blacks once to mark out your legacy. Beat them at the tournament and no one will remember the pants-down thrashing they served earlier in the season.

When discussing memorable matches played between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in 2003, very few will mention the 50-21 humbling inflicted upon the hosts in Sydney in July. But Stirling Mortlock blagging in for an intercept try in the World Cup semifinal at the same venue four months later remains painfully memorable.

Do you remember that cracking 54-7 humbling of the hapless French at Athletic Park in June 1999? A day that lived not long in the memory.

How about those two tests in 2007, when we stuffed the Gauls by 42-11 at Eden Park and 61-10 in Wellington?

Should they make it past the quarter-finals, there’s a reasonable chance the All Blacks could encounter the Wallabies in the semifinal.

Jones knows which game matters.