Wallabies coach Dave Rennie gives an insight into how the team is managing in quarantine. Video / Australian Rugby
COMMENT:
The ongoing fight between the respective New Zealand and Australia national rugby unions started in the boardroom, but it needs to end on the field.
The All Blacks are going to have to land the telling and terminal blows that their executive team couldn't when they meet the Wallabiesin the first two Bledisloe Cup tests next month.
Two solid, dominant even, victories by the All Blacks will ensure that we are back to business as usual and the weirdly hostile yet fraternal relationship between the two nations can no doubt stumble into its next mad chapter of bickering, pettiness and underhand deviousness that makes the Bledisloe Cup the single greatest rugby event on the planet.
The Six Nations has a depth of rivalry that makes it compelling. The Celts have it in their DNA to carry a furious resentment, and mostly they aim it at England.
The French seem to think they are still in Agincourt 600 years ago whenever they play and in 100-plus years of competition the Northern Hemisphere's prized jewel has produced a legion of unforgettable dramas.
England were once threatened with expulsion after they secretly completed their own separate broadcast deal; Ireland said a Scotsman nearly strangled one of their players to death at the bottom of a ruck and the French at various times have claimed to be the victims of an Anglo refereeing conspiracy.
It's never been dull and yet for all the plot twists, it lags the Bledisloe Cup, where in the last 20 years particularly, the storylines have pushed beyond where fiction writers would be willing to go.
Sevu Reece, Richie Mo'unga and George Bridge of the All Blacks sing the national anthem ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2019 Quarter Final. Photo / Getty Images.
The whole saga around the 2003 co-hosting rights was drama enough, but once Rugby Australia had secured exclusive rights to the tournament, they then two years later voted against New Zealand hosting the 2011 World Cup.
Who could ever forget the surreal sight of Robbie Deans walking out of New Zealand Rugby's headquarters in Wellington 2007 after being told he'd missed out on the All Blacks job, get in a taxi, head to the airport and be unveiled as coach of the Wallabies in Sydney a day later?
And of course there was the almost unbelievable events in 2016 when the All Blacks sparked a Police investigation when they discovered a listening device in their hotel before the first Bledisloe.
A year later and their own head of security was in court facing accusations that he had in fact put it there.
So this latest spat which has seen Australia unveil a Rugby Championship schedule that New Zealand didn't agree to, is entirely in keeping with how things have been in the last 20 years.
Australia throw all sorts of punches and indulge in underhand tactics in the boardroom and then New Zealand responds by sending out the All Blacks to wipe the floor with the Wallabies.
That's how the relationship stays balanced – how New Zealand retains the upper hand. The executives start some nonsense and the All Blacks ends it.
Brodie Retallick and team mates line up for the anthems. Photo / Getty Images.
Whenever the suits in Australia think they have outsmarted their rivals across the Tasman, the All Blacks stomp all over the Wallabies, hold up the Bledisloe Cup and remind everyone where the power really sits in the relationship.
Clearly, the pressure is now on new coach Ian Foster and his young troops to do their bit in restoring the balance of power which has tilted alarmingly towards Australia in the last few weeks.
The political backdrop could hardly provide a better context for his first test in charge.
Foster has made it a priority for his side to bring a renewed physicality to the test arena and has picked his squad accordingly.
What better way for his All Blacks to begin than with an intensely physical, dominant performance against a country that has previously never been able to stand up to that kind of scrutiny?
What better way to remind the suits across the ditch that sneak attacks have consequences and Foster and his fellow selectors will undoubtedly be tempted to pick their first team with size and abrasiveness as a priority.
This is not the time to be cute or clever, but instead roll the sleeves up, look the Wallabies in the eye and then find out whether they are ready to handle 80 minutes of cataclysmic collisions.
That would, potentially, see Shannon Frizell joining Ardie Savea and Sam Cane in the back-row, and a back three consisting of Rieko Ioane and Jordie Barrett on the wings, with Beauden Barrett at fullback and Anton Lienert-Brown and Jack Goodhue in the midfield.
New arrivals such as Cullen Grace, Akira Ioane and Hoskins Sotutu and those whose game is less about physicality such as George Bridge, Sevu Reece and Will Jordan will all get their chance later this year.
The situation that has escalated in the boardroom has to be dealt with quickly and clinically with a shock and awe response at the Cake Tin.
