All Blacks to remember pain of defeat for opener
>> WELLINGTON: All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster says he is still smarting from last October’s defeat to Australia and hopes his players will carry memories of that rare loss into their Rugby Championship opener against the Wallabies next week.
After retaining the Bledisloe Cup, the symbol of trans-Tasman superiority, by beating Australia in the first two games of the Rugby Championship last season, the All Blacks were then stunned 23-18 by Michael Cheika’s side in the dead rubber match.
“I try to move on, but it is still there,” Foster said of the loss at Lang Park, where the Wallabies ended a sevengame losing streak to New Zealand. “We saw that after the game, how much it meant to them.
“It still hurts.”
The loss, while painful, was just a blip in the All Blacks’ domination of the Wallabies in recent years. Since beating Australia 20-6 in the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final they have won 15 of their 19 games against them.
The Wallabies, who last retained the Bledisloe Cup in 2002 and have not won it since, have two wins and two draws.
New Zealand are looking to secure a third straight Rugby Championship, which also includes southern hemisphere sides South Africa and Argentina. Australia last won it in 2015.
Despite their dominant record, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has tried to paint his back-to-back World Cup winning side as underdogs for the game on Aug 18 in Sydney. “We lost to Australia the last time we played them, so no doubt they’ll have a lot of selfconfidence and are worthy of starting as favourites,” Hansen said.