The Wallabies face the All Blacks haka. Photo / Photosport
The Wallabies face the All Blacks haka. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Although they are only separated by a not especially vast body of water, New Zealand and Australia present on the world sporting stage so differently as to give no hint they are neighbours.
The Kiwis are defiantly humble, determined it often seems to react to victory, defeat and pressurewith classic understatement, almost fearful they could be accused of enjoying the moment or talking themselves up if they acknowledge they may have done something special.
Australia tends to come at sport from the opposite view: with an almost inspiring, certainly compelling level of self-confidence as if the greatest sin an athlete could commit would be to hide their light under a bushel.
Under pressure, Australians talk themselves up, not down. When they are not under pressure, Australians talk themselves up, not down.
Your average Aussie male doesn't tend to do much in the way of self-deprecation and maybe it was no surprise that when film director Ridley Scott was casting for the part Maximus in his film Gladiator, he turned to an Australian actor to fill it.
Reece Hodge of the Wallabies looks on after losing the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australia Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.
Who else but an Australian could face the impossible odds that Maximus encountered and believe they were in with a fair dinkum chance?
The Kiwis, so stoic and reserved, have never been at ease with the way Australians have effortlessly maintained their self-confidence: the way they can be knocked down one week and bounce back the next, stronger and more determined, seemingly without any emotional scarring.
New Zealanders seem distrusting of this trait within the Wallabies, unsure whether they talk themselves up as a genuine reflection of their mood and self-confidence or whether it's all an act, a classic bluff.
And it's this pronounced sense of separation that has injected the drama and edge into this weekend's Bledisloe Cup clash.
The All Blacks have mentioned the Wallabies' self-confidence several times in the last few weeks – no one quite sure whether they were doing so with a sense of admiration and marking it as a weapon to be curtailed or with a touch of disdain, questioning on what grounds it could be maintained, hinting that pride most typically precedes a fall.
And this ambiguity makes it hard to know what the All Blacks truly made of young Wallaby wing Andrew Kellaway, bold as brass stating this week that now he's had his first taste of playing a test at Eden Park that: "Maybe the aura has worn off a little bit."
This was classic Aussie bravado – a bloke most All Blacks had barely heard of even earlier this year, suggesting, after just his third cap, that this whole not losing at Eden Park since 1994, isn't in fact any kind of big deal.
The Wallabies face the All Blacks haka. Photo / Photosport
Kellaway, with a full 80 minutes under his belt, suggests that he saw enough in that time to have identified that the All Blacks aren't necessarily as scary as their reputation and then doubled down to say: "To be honest, the pressure is pretty much on them.
"You don't want to be the first All Blacks team to lose at Eden Park. There's no real pressure on our end. Hopefully we roll out there and do a number [on them]."
If a young All Black with a similar lack of experience and proven reputation went down the same track, it would be deemed ill-advised and entirely out of keeping with the team's values.
But somehow, when a Wallaby has the chutzpah to go there, it creates a sense of intrigue because it is genuinely fascinating to ponder what it is that Australians have wired into their hard drive to give them such an unbreakable conviction in their own ability.
Perhaps it was dumb arrogance on Kellaway's part to be so cock sure, or maybe it is a reflection of the confidence the squad is feeling after most certainly not being overwhelmed by the All Blacks in the first Bledisloe Cup.
What should make everyone in New Zealand wary is that this abundance of self-confidence has enabled Australian sports teams in all codes to punch above their weight throughout history.
Being overly confident doesn't work for the All Blacks, but it clearly does for the Wallabies and without that inner conviction, who knows how bad things would have been for them this past decade.
Looking back through the last 10 years or so, they have indeed shown a correlation between what has appeared unjustified confidence and them winning.
The Wallabies have that knack of winning when they are least expected to, when their situation is desperate, bordering on hopeless and it's all because they have an indestructible belief in their own ability even when no one else does.
