All Blacks assistant coach speaks to media. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
The Bledisloe Cup has survived and thrived through all sorts of scandals, personal rivalries and even a courtroom drama which saw the All Blacks effectively accused of planting a listening device in their inner sanctum and then trying to blame it on the Wallabies.
Rivers of bad blood haveflowed through this contest over the decades to create the richest of storylines that has only added to the magic of the Bledisloe.
Australians of a certain age will never forgive Sir Colin Meads for prematurely ending the career of Wallabies halfback Ken Catchpole in 1968, just as there are some rugby fans still reeling from the way Michael Brial unleashed hell on Frank Bunce in 1996.
And what about those years of Richie McCaw and Quade Cooper chasing each other all over the world – their distaste for one another never far from the surface?
Not that Cooper was alone in having McCaw under his skin. Wallabies wing Lote Tuqiri memorably picked up the former All Blacks skipper at Eden Park in 2006 and dumped him on his head, while six years later, No 8 Scott Higginbotham kneed McCaw in the face before head-butting him.
This list of famous atrocities could go on forever. George Gregan taunting the All Blacks at the 2003 World Cup with his famous "four more years, boys, four more years" line.
Former Wallabies halfback George Gregan. Photo / Photosport
Or, when Steve Hansen was asked whether it was true that Mickey Mouse could coach the All Blacks, and said, Mickey wasn't available, because he was already coaching the Wallabies.
New Zealand's rivalry with Australia is built on drama. These two are bickering siblings – the Gallagher brothers of world rugby almost – with the critical difference being that while these two nations may have a tempestuous relationship, in times of real need, they drop everything to help.
That's the all-important context – the relationship, at its foundation, has mutual respect and genuine understanding of being friends and allies when earthquakes, forest fires and global conflicts rip lives on both sides of the Tasman apart.
And that's why, even given all the unsavoury incidents that have been witnessed over the years, the latest atrocity in Melbourne where Wallabies lock Darcy Swain appeared to deliberately target the lower leg of Quinn Tupaea in a cleanout which has left the All Blacks midfielder with serious knee damage that will keep him out of rugby for months, will be a hard one with which to make peace.
Mostly, the incidents that have coloured the Bledisloe have been spontaneous acts where the occasion has got to players, and they have reacted.
Heat of the moment stuff can be brushed off later, especially when there is an element of contrition from those who have transgressed.
Quinn Tupaea will miss the rest of the season. Photo / Photosport
But what happened with Swain was different, or at least senior All Blacks Beauden Barrett and Aaron Smith gave every impression they saw it as different when they spoke with media on Monday.
"I feel for Quinn because he's going to be out of the game for a long period of time," said Barrett.
"He basically didn't see it coming, he was a sitting duck. It was a free shot. I'm not too sure what's happening in their camp with Darcy Swain but we don't like to see these sorts of injuries."
In the modern age of All Blacks being ultra-careful how they express themselves, this from Barrett should be deemed moral outrage.
The inference was clear that Swain's act was considered outlandish in a professional game where there are expectations that there is a code among participants that no one heads out with the intent to deliberately maim anyone.
Darcy Swain (left) of the Wallabies is given a yellow card by referee Mathieu Raynal. Photo / Getty
A rugby career can be lucrative, but it can also be short given the high-impact nature of collisions.
There's an acceptance of risk among those who play that bad luck could ruin everything, but when a fellow pro appears to have set his sights on inflicting another with an horrific, and potentially career-ending, or certainly career-changing injury, it's not something that can be laughed off as run of the mill Bledisloe drama.
The situation has not been helped by Wallabies coach Dave Rennie playing down the incident immediately after the game.
Maybe at that point, he hadn't seen the camera angles which certainly make it questionable what Swain was up to, and if he was asked to give his thoughts on the incident now, perhaps Rennie would be more circumspect and conciliatory.
But for the moment, the injury to Tupaea and the way it was inflicted is hanging over this Eden Park test and indeed the relationship between the two sides.
Not all is fair in love and war and the Bledisloe may be a drama junky, but not of this sort: not the cold, clinical, deliberate kind where a young man's future may now have been reshaped in the wrong direction.
