Lots of hot air but Wallabies will be deflated

Forget the hot air and unfounded optimism coming out of the Wallabies camp (they’re at least consistent at that, if not test rugby), forget the Lions series as a form guide on the All Blacks and forget even the law that every dog has its day. Bledisloe I in Sydney will be more one-way traffic, with a more than familiar outcome.

And that’s more Bledis-woe for a Wallabies outfit that has a long, long way to go to get back to a level when they can challenge the All Blacks on a consistent basis.

Look, surely it won’t be as extreme as last year when the All Blacks launched their Rugby Championship campaign, and Bledisloe Cup retention, in style with a six-try, 42-8 dismantling of a woeful Wallabies side who were outgunned from pillar to post. Surely.

But the Wallabies simply are not good enough at the minute to jump all over the New Zealanders, a la the Lions over the final two tests of their series. As much as they might be poring over tapes from Wellington and Eden Park II and salivating over the blueprint to bring the All Blacks back to earth with a thud, they just don’t appear to have the cattle, cohesion or consistency to emulate the Lions.

Nor, as it turns out, will they have a French referee which might just have been the Lions’ principal weapon, with Jerome Garces a late withdrawal, and old friend Wayne Barnes slotting in. Sentences you never thought you would write: the All Blacks will be rapt to have Wayne Barnes as their referee tomorrow night. (But they will.)

There is certainly a hint of fallibility about the world’s No 1 side at the moment, and the Lions were good to expose that. They just haven’t been the free-flowing menaces of 2016’s Rugby Championship since, oh, the end-of-year tour.

The continued absence of hooker Dane Coles does little to reduce that. This team misses its gifted No 2 a lot more than anyone is letting on.

There is an element of the unknown about how Damian Mckenzie will fare in his third test; about Liam Squire in his first real big chance to grab the No 6 jersey; and also about Ofa Tu’ungafasi as backup tighthead. The halfback has his challenges as well.

But it all comes back to the strength of Australian rugby. The Wallabies have won one of the last 16 Bledisloe Cup tests for a reason. They are neither collectively nor individually at the level required to dethrone the All Blacks. Not yet anyway.

It has been 15 long years since Australia was last home to the Bledisloe, and though there have been intermittent signs of a Wallabies resurgence, they have inevitably come to nought.

Yes, there is plenty of intent. And they’ve had an age to prepare, with coach Michael Cheika vowing he has addressed serious fitness issues that have undermined the challenge in the past.

But how many games did Australian teams win against New Zealand opposition in Super Rugby this year? None.

Israel Folau is a world-class operator, Michael Hooper is a classy sort and Will Genia will bring his sniping ability at halfback. But they are the exceptions that prove the rule: the Wallabies simply aren’t good enough to rattle the All Black cage.

The ABS by plenty.

The Wallabies simply aren’t good enough to rattle the All Black cage.