Wallabies coach Dave Rennie believes his side can bounce back against a red hot All Blacks side. Video / Australian Rugby
Dead rubber. Horrid term isn't it? Insulting almost, to the teams concerned, to the fans and the competition.
This weekend's Bledisloe 4 could sneak into that category. The Cup is won, and arrogance on my behalf presumes that the Argentines will be no more than a judder bar on theexpressway to Tri-Nations glory.
I'm sure the Wallabies aren't taking that view. After the horror show of last week, this becomes the most important test they'll play. This season has seen the advent of a new coach, new players and a brave new world to face as Aussie rugby attempt to claw back a modicum of respect. Actually, even a spark of interest from the Australian sporting public will do now.
It all started well in Wellington but since that false dawn, their game has unravelled faster than a ball of yarn at the paws of a black cat. Like this weekend's fixture, which is as close to a dead rubber as it gets, the Australian game is on life support.
The All Blacks know this and have brought in a whole new shift of staff to oversee the demise.
Ardie Savea of the All Blacks is tackled by James O'Connor of the Wallabies during the Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.
On the face of it, the mass changes, both in position and personal, would suggest that with the Bledisloe safely interred for another year and the Tri-Nations a mere formality, they can safely meddle with the construct of the side.
Try telling that to the men named and the jersey numbers they possess. This is not an exercise of rest, rotation and experimentation to them, this is a gilt-edged opportunity to further stretch and strengthen the seemingly endless selection matrix on offer to the coaching staff. To show that there are numerous methods in which to inflict misery on the opposition, regardless of the available players and where they find themselves in relation to each other on the park.
Noah Lolesio of the Wallabies is tackled during the 2020 Tr-Nations and Bledisloe Cup match between the Australian Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.
This fixture is not being treated as a hearse in which to carry the Wallabies to the cemetery, this an ambulance to take the victim to theatre, where a whole new doctrine of physicians get to further their collective knowledge and effectiveness on a prone body. Each member of the contingent willing and ready to introduce their own surgical nous to the operation, knowing that one day they may be called in to the theatre to exercise their own unique set of skills wherever it may be required.
