Gregor Paul: Winning the Bledisloe Cup is much more complex than it appears

All Blacks no.8 Ardie Savea, left, and hooker Codie Taylor speak to the media after the naming of the All Blacks team to play the Wallabies. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

OPINION:

For the last 27 years it has appeared that the All Blacks turn up at Eden Park, play a test, and win. Occasionally – twice to be precise – they have turned up in that period and drawn.

But they haven't lost and if we are going to focus specifically on Australia, their opponent this Saturday, you have to go back to 1986 to find the last time the All Blacks were beaten by the Wallabies at Eden Park.

For 35 years the Wallabies have been coming to Eden Park, full of hope, always confident that they can defy history and yet each time they have left Auckland empty handed.

Every now and again it has been close. They have hung in for a bit, 70 minutes or so, sometimes 75, but never been able to see it through.

Other times they have been hammered – forced to hunker down in the face of a rampant All Blacks side working out some frustrations.

For those who peer at the Bledisloe Cup and tests at Eden Park through a results-only lens, this Saturday sits as a regulation weekend: one where the All Blacks will do what they always do, which is turn up and win.

But for all that the last 35 years has seemingly told a relatively simple story, it's one that is considerably deeper and more complex than it appears.

The victories have piled up, but the idea that the All Blacks just need to turn up to win is utterly devoid of truth.

Never has an All Blacks side had it easy against a Wallaby team in the last 35 years and each and every victory has required a deep investment by the home team.

Former captain Richie McCaw used to be perplexed that anyone could think that victory came easy against the Wallabies.

The All Blacks training in Christchurch. Photo / George Heard

Every test he ever won against Australia he'd come off the field more relieved than euphoric, aware at just how much he and his team-mates had put into the match, but also the week leading into it.

The results, then, are not the narrative on which to focus because they don't for a second reveal the sacrifice, the graft, the soul-searching and the commitment it takes to beat the Wallabies in a Bledisloe Cup test.

It doesn't matter, and never has, that the Wallabies are languishing in an unfamiliar low point in the world rankings.

It doesn't matter that the Australian Super Rugby teams battled this year against their Kiwi counterparts just as they have for the better part of the last decade now.

And nor does it matter that the Wallabies have had to stand down three key players this week for breaking team protocol.

To buy into any notion of the Wallabies being vulnerable or easy-beats would be a catastrophically bad error of judgement and this precise point is something deeply appreciated among those All Blacks who have been around for a few years and one that has been hammered into the newer members this week.

As veteran hooker Codie Taylor revealed, former prop Owen Franks, who played more than 100 tests for the All Blacks – a number greater than the total words he spoke to the media in his long and illustrious career – chose one of his few speaking topics to be the danger the Wallabies pose.

"One of our All Blacks legends Owen Franks said back in the day, 'No matter what the score is, how well you are playing against them, they will always back themselves to come back and they will always stay in the fight'.

"That is just that Australian mind-set that they have and it is up to us to take that away."

And this is why the Bledisloe Cup is the trophy that the All Blacks value more than any other bar the World Cup.

It takes them to the edge of their physical and mental limits to win tests against the Wallabies and big scores, if they are chalked up, don't reflect Australian weakness, but instead New Zealand excellence.

At no point this week, says starting No 10 Richie Mo'unga, have the All Blacks talked about their Eden Park record or had any discussion about anything other than the real and constant threat the Wallabies will pose.

All Blacks Akira Ioane with brother Rieko in support. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

No one inside the All Blacks is thinking turn up, win. Coach Ian Foster has said twice this week that he expects the Wallabies to be physical, confrontational and eager to play a fast, ruck and run game.

He has also been at pains to say that if his team fails to appreciate the dangers they face, they will be second best.

Never has it been or never is it likely to be true that all the All Blacks have to do to win at Eden Park is turn up.