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 Springboks were unceremoniously dumped by Ian Foster’s men at Mt Smart a fortnight ago, they would have been gutted by thedefeat. 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.
But the Boks will know there’s a decent chance they’ll meet the All Blacks in the quarter-finals at this year’s World Cup, possibly even in the final. Victory in a sudden-death World Cup match is the result for which they would be best remembered.
Eddie Jones’ Wallabies will want to win tonight when they square up against the All Blacks in Melbourne. But they know they don’t have to. They’d never admit it, but the pressure on the Aussies is never as heavy as that on the All Blacks when the Bledisloe Cup is at stake.
In a Rugby World Cup year, you only need to beat the All Blacks once to mark out your legacy. Defeat the All Blacks at the tournament and no one will remember the pants-down thrashing they served you earlier in the season.
Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones. Photo / Photosport
When discussing memorable matches played between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in 2003, very few people 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 is right on the tip of your tongue.
Do you remember that cracking 54-7 humbling we put on the hapless French at Athletic Park in June 1999? A day that lived not long in the memory; we’d sooner dwell on the 48-31 RWC semifinal defeat that followed.
How about those two tests in 2007, when we stuffed the Gauls by 42-11 at Eden Park and 61-10 in Wellington? Those games are less noted than the infamous 20-18 whoopsie in Cardiff.
In non-World Cup matches played in years in which the French have knocked us out of the tournament, the aggregate score stands at 157-28.
Should they make it past the quarter-finals at this year’s Rugby World Cup, there’s a reasonable chance the All Blacks could encounter the Wallabies in the semifinal.
The Wallaby coach has been in charge of two teams that have met the All Blacks in World Cup knockout matches – the jammy Wallabies of 2003 and the brutes of England in 2019.
Jones will want his men to win tonight, but he knows what games really matter.
