Aussies present biggest challenge
Forget the test in Paris against France, or the season-ender in Cardiff against Wales — the toughest test of what is left of the All Blacks’ season is this week in Brisbane.
The clash with the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium is the one with danger written all over it.
Ask the All Blacks coaches if there is a game where they feel their side is unusually vulnerable, and their answer will be this one.
It will be a big week. A tough week. A long week because the All Blacks know that being one per cent off in Brisbane could see their seven-test unbeaten run come to an abrupt halt.
And they know there are a host of factors weighing against them. Number one is the fact the Bledisloe Cup is safe.
It is not on the line and while the All Blacks’ pride and reputation is, it is unquestionably a week where New Zealand’s motivation has to be slightly manufactured.
The All Blacks care deeply about their reputation and legacy but it is harder for players to see how much damage can be done losing the third test of an already victorious series.
So there is no natural edge in Brisbane — no obvious and hurtful consequence to not winning and scan back through the last five years and the evidence is all there to say the All Blacks produce their best rugby on the biggest occasions.
They are a team that responds well to the pressure of overtly identifiable landmark tests that will leave a historical footprint.
The test this week isn’t one of those games — it is an obligation test, a revenue generator and not even for the All Blacks.
On the flip side, the Wallabies have a little more natural incentive despite knowing they can’t win back the Bledisloe. They haven’t beaten the All Blacks since 2015 and that is their sole victory since 2012.
In their last 17 tests against the All Blacks they have lost 14, drawn two and won one and so a victory, however and whenever it comes, is to be savoured.
Such is the dire state of things across the Tasman that no one in Australia will care that the series is not alive. These are times to be grateful for small mercies and losing two-one is way better than losing three-nil.
A victory against the All Blacks will be a sign of some kind that all hope is not lost, that the Wallabies, against a backdrop of a desperate Super Rugby situation, are hanging in there.
Australian rugby needs a win and the Wallabies will be carrying that desperation with them. And they are a good side. A seriously good side who were three minutes away from winning in Dunedin and they haven’t been beaten since.
There’s also a sense that Suncorp, at least when they play the All Blacks, is some kind of spiritual home for the Wallabies.
It might be the heat, the humidity and maybe even the knowledge that the stands will be packed with Kiwi ex-pats, but there is something about Suncorp that gets the best out of the Wallabies.
They beat the All Blacks there in 2011 before the World Cup. They drew there in 2012 and really should have won in 2014, but for the fact the All Blacks dug out a sensational try in the last minute which Colin Slade had to convert after the hooter to win it.
France, Scotland and Wales all will present tough and demanding challenges for the All Blacks, but none will be as demanding or as troublesome an opponent as the Wallabies this Saturday.