All Blacks v Wallabies: D'Arcy Waldegrave - Is this the start of more midweek All Blacks tests?

Sam Cane speaks to media during an All Blacks training session in Melbourne. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

A Thursday night Bledisloe Cup encounter? Sure, why not? As long as the horror of the '94 midweek transtasman fixture doesn't reanimate again, I'll take it.

For those who weren't around or have chosen to expunge that nightmare from their mental hard drive, it was THAT TACKLE. The one where George Gregan, with hair, tackled Jeff Wilson, also with hair, over the try line to deny the Golden One and block the All Blacks from a famous victory.

For all of Gregan's brilliance, we, like the All Blacks, keenly remember the defeats, not the victories. That late heartbreak has haunted a generation of All Blacks fans, although not like it must do one of New Zealand's greatest wingers. Pack this alongside the "four more years" call after beating the All Blacks in the 2003 Rugby World Cup semifinal, and Gregan is living rent free in our collective minds for an eternity. A good player no doubt, but arguably the greatest All Blacks troll of them all.

That aside, tonight's test is an outlier due to its unusual timing. This has occurred as Australian Rugby, who are hosting the encounter, have fully accepted rugby's position in the Aussie code hierarchy. And it's not at the top. To avoid potential eyeball clashes, both at the ground and on the screen, the test has been positioned in a timeslot where it won't be cannibalised by the NRL or the ARL, both at key junctures in their seasons.

This is pragmatism at work. It's also recognition that the way we consume sport has changed and although the Kiwi hospitality industry would love the injection of punters watching the match on a Saturday night, if we want to watch the All Blacks we still can, even though for most, the experience will leave us a little bleary eyed at work on Friday.

We are so used to having access to so many events on so many platforms, live as they happen, that taking in a game at a less-than-sociable hour won't break the sleep bank for the most ardent fan.

The scary part of this is the acceptance from Rugby Australia that even with the drawcard of what was once the most feared team in rugby, playing for a long-contested trophy, isn't enough to go toe-to-toe with NRL or ARL.

So, Thursday night it is and in a city with the population of New Zealand, it's worked well, with the ground selling out.

It could be framed as the biggest scheduling balls up in recent rugby history, but Rugby Australia will happily count the gate receipts. The interest to me lies in screen engagement across the board. If it's successful, will that be enough traction to see more midweek exchanges?

The kick-off time could have been more Kiwi friendly, but it's not like it's unusual for Kiwi fans to get pineappled like this, our schedule often leans to global demands. I'm sure all of us would prefer to watch our code in the afternoon, but international broadcast rights have kyboshed that want for decades.

This game will hopefully go down as an oddity, unless of course the All Blacks now famed inconsistency strikes, and then we'll remember it as the game that tipped the Bledisloe Cup toward the Wallabies.