Wallabies face a slippery slope at the last citadel

By CHRIS LAIDLAW

Every once in a while a single match stands out as the defining moment of a season.

This test match may turn out to be even more than that. It may be looked back on as the moment this great Australian team finally began the slow, inexorable, downward spiral from the highest pinnacle of achievement.

Today's result will either restore the Wallabies firmly at the top, or it will set them off down the slippery slope to oblivion. The critics in Australia, daggers already drawn, will clamour for changes if they lose. Nobody really knows if the Wallaby team have peaked. The only certainty is that no team can stay No 1 forever.

But this team is not exactly a collection of stumbling veterans. Despite giving the impression of vast experience all round, this Wallaby squad is just as much a blend of youth and maturity as the All Blacks or the Springboks.

Each year a new player or two has stepped up to fill the gaps and the ARU has gone about targeting league talent with exactly this object in mind. In the case of Andrew Walker, this has worked to perfection.

Next year it may well be Wendell Sailor on the other wing, where a vacancy will obviously exist.

Others will follow, to order, as the rebuild toward the next World Cup proceeds.

But impressions can become self-fulfilling. The fact that John Eales has announced that 2001 is the end of his road creates a mood of change. And because Eales has been such a dominant figure for so long, it can hardly be seen as change for the better.

It will be exceptionally hard for the Wallabies to change that impression and they will know that today is the turning point.

The Wallabies cannot have asked for a more testing trial.

Dunedin will be wet, the weather will be cold and the Wallabies have taken a gamble and parachuted in at the last moment.

And that horrible bogey of Carisbrook will play on their minds. They have never won here. The crowd, unlike any other, will be willing them to lose.

This is the final citadel for the Australians to capture. They have taken every other spoil available, but this one won't be given up lightly.

The only remaining question is, have the All Black selectors picked the right players to deny them continuity of possession?

The two crucial areas are the lineouts and the breakdowns, and in both departments the All Blacks will start points down.

Is Randell the right choice to foot it with George Smith? Or should Holah, the specialist, be given his big chance?

Similarly in the lineout. If either of the All Black jumpers falls short are we likely to see Cooksley get the greatest opportunity of his career.

A decisive All Black victory in Dunedin will tilt the balance of power, and of confidence, away from Australia. But a win of any kind will do just fine.