Mentioning their Eden Park hoodoo
I’ve only managed to win there once, but in saying that, we just have to make sure we use that one opportunity . . . that’s my biggest motivator — to win again at Eden Park.”
Outside back Jack Maddocks, has played at Eden Park once and has a 100 per cent record.
“I won with the Rebels [this year], so what hoodoo?” quipped Maddocks.
Warming to his task, the 21-yearold Maddocks, who scored his team’s only try of last weekend’s test in the 38-13 defeat at ANZ Stadium, said he would be happy to provide a shoulder for his teammates to lean on.
He is a good chance to replace injured fullback Israel Folau and appears to have the fearless spirit his team will need in order to overturn a run of 17 consecutive defeats on the All Blacks’ favourite piece of grass.
A change in attitude is something Cheika has recognised as important and is partly why his side are based at the Waiheke Resort Hotel. They arrived on Sunday night and rather than the same old hotel downtown, they were forced to explore a different base with a different atmosphere.
Will that change the weight of history? Not unless they improve their set piece against an All Blacks outfit which will be celebrating yet another significant milestone a week after Sam Whitelock’s 100th test. This time, it’s Owen Franks who will reach the three-figure mark, the ninth All Black and fifth Crusader to do so.
“I’ve had too many collisions with that bloke,” said the affable PolotaNau. “It’s a testament to his character in terms of being a team man but also really resilient. A lot of them have come from the Crusaders and they are so resilient, so it’s no wonder they get to reach 100 caps. It will be another great test to come up against him and hopefully we get the upper hand on him this time.”
Polota-Nau might get some quality reinforcements in the form of props Scott Sio and Taniela Tupou, and said the message from Cheika this week would be “quite simple“.
“We need to be in contention for the Bledisloe, so we have to make sure we do everything we can to get the win because although we haven’t won there [for a while], it’s an even bigger challenge that we’re one-nil down in the series,” he said.
Maddocks said: “We have to keep the intensity the whole 80 minutes. We started well [last week], we’ve just got to keep putting pressure on the ABs and hopefully we’ll start to see them crack.”