Rugby World Cup: Lessons from past prove Aussies a worthy match

Australian veteran Matt Giteau brings experience to the Wallabies but could prove a defensive weak link. Photo / AP

All Blacks know all too well that previous Bledisloe encounters matter little at Twickenham final.

Before the opening Bledisloe Cup match, one of the All Blacks group told me to watch for something special in Sydney.

He had never been more serious. The All Blacks had never prepared so well and were ready to put on a performance to mimic all that slick work.

On a great August night for rugby, the Wallabies were a mix of sharp loose forward work from Michael Hooper and David Pocock, several yellow cards, solid goal-kicking and an erratic hour's work from halfback Nick Phipps.

That mish-mash brought a 27-19 Aussie victory with twin strikes from Nehe Milner-Skudder, on debut, the bright spot in a faded All Blacks showing. Those glitches were reversed a week later at Eden Park but will sit somewhere in the souls of tomorrow's World Cup finalists.

Both sides will have worked out tactics to send them to the Twickenham rostrum and the Webb Ellis Cup presentation. Their intentions will be engrossed on the plan they've been plotting to knock the other side off their rhythm. The mental skills coaches will have deleted the flawed parts of Sydney and Eden Park from players' memories and replaced them with positive belief.

They've played 11 times since the last World Cup for eight All Blacks wins, two draws and one defeat. That All Blacks success rate lines up with my sense of where this final is heading.

The rather large insect in that assessment is Michael Cheika who has coached the Wallabies to a win and loss against the All Blacks. His influence has made the Wallabies look much more organised and dangerous.

Bernard Foley is a five-eighths whose play suits test rugby demands much more than the flighty Quade Cooper, Scott Sio is a loosehead prop who can scrum, Will Genia runs plays as a top halfback should while everyone knows about the twin Michael Hooper-David Pocock threats.

The Wallabies stumbled at Eden Park and so nearly stubbed their RWC campaign against Scotland but out of each spill, they pushed on. Their defence claimed the Pumas but they will need more tomorrow.

Where will the All Blacks shine their focus, where will they look to break down their rivals? Maybe the Matt Giteau-Tevita Kuridrani midfield where they can throw runners at different angles to test their defensive web. Neither Giteau nor Foley, even closer in, are the most robust defenders and bending the line through those channels will create valuable impetus.

Everyone will have ideas but 46 men and referee Nigel Owens will take those notions and twist them to their likeness. Until kickoff we'll have to make do with supposition, and hope Twickenham is not like Sydney.