Rookie Maddocks scoffs at hoodoo

Australia have not won a Test at New Zealand’s Eden Park in 32 years but talk of a hoodoo holds little weight for Wallabies rookie Jack Maddocks ahead of the second Rugby Championship match against the All Blacks.

Thrashed 38-13 in the opener in Sydney on Saturday, the Wallabies need a win at the Auckland stronghold to dent the All Blacks’ title defence and push the Bledisloe Cup, the annual series contested between the nations, to a decider.

Most of Michael Cheika’s Wallabies know only humiliating defeat from their trips to Eden Park and bookmakers expect more of the same on Saturday. However, Maddocks, who plays for the Melbourne Rebels, has a refreshing outlook on the challenge. “I won with the Rebels, so what hoodoo?” the versatile backline player said.

Maddocks was indeed part of a rare Australian win at the stadium in June with his Super Rugby team against the Blues.

Not many of his international teammates can make such a boast, though. Hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, won with the Waratahs in 2009, his only victorious trip to Auckland in 14 years of top-flight rugby.

“There’s no better challenge for us as a whole group ... to not even consider whatever they call the ‘hoodoo’ of Eden Park,” he said.

“I’ve played there quite a few times. 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.”

To try to change the Wallabies’ mind-set in the leadup to Saturday’s Test, Cheika has changed their environment.

He ditched the usual city hotel in favour of a resort at Waiheke Island, a peaceful expanse of vineyards, beaches and holiday homes 40 minutes off the mainland by ferry.

Some in Australia feel bigger changes are needed, including one prominent rugby writer who called for Cheika and his entire team of assistants to be fired in the wake of the capitulation at ANZ Stadium.

Polota-Nau said that Cheika, who took the Wallabies to a surprise World Cup final in 2015 and has signed up until after 2019’s global showpiece in Japan, is not to blame for the team’s woes.

“He’s definitely the best man for the job,” said the hooker.

“He actually brings a great blueprint for us to work off.

“If anything it’s more about how we take that blueprint and put it out there on the field,” he said.