16 years of Bledisloe Cup pain for the Wallabies

5834 days. That's how long it's been since Australia had their hands on the Bledisloe Cup.

They won't stop the drought in Saturday's opening Bledisloe Cup test in Perth but a victory will at least give them a chance to finally lift the trophy next Saturday at Eden Park.

By kickoff time on Saturday it will have been It's 15 years, 11 months and 25 days for the Wallabies since their 21-17 defeat at Eden Park and Wallabies captain George Gregan handed the famous trophy over to Reuben Thorne.

Since that New Zealand victory the two teams have played 44 tests for the Bledisloe Cup with the All Blacks winning 35 and Australia enjoying just seven victories with two draws in the mix.

- If you'd skipped watching the game and gone to the movies instead you would have had a tough call between Finding Nemo, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Love Actually.

- And while you'd were driving to the movies the radio would have played Crazy in Love by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z, Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake or Eminem's Lose Yourself.

- All Blacks fans wouldn't have been able to Tweet about the victory or brag about the win on Facebook. Twitter was still three years away from being founded while Facebook first went online nine months later.

- A month earlier the World Health Organization declared that SARS or Severe acute respiratory syndrome was declared contained.

- All Blacks squad member Rieko Ioane had a few months earlier celebrated his sixth birthday.

- New Zealand have had four sitting Prime Ministers since - Helen Clark, John Key, Bill English and Jacinda Ardern. Australia have had seven.

Reuben Thorne fans in the terraces during the 2003 Bledisloe Cup game at Eden Park. Photosport