With history stacked against them, the Wallabies know Australia can all but kiss the Bledisloe Cup goodbye for a 12th straight year if they can’t topple the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday night.
Skipper James Horwill admits a victory in the series opener at ANZ Stadium is not negotiable ahead of games two and three in Wellington on Saturday week and at Dunedin’s House of Pain on October 19.
The Wallabies haven’t beaten the mighty All Blacks in New Zealand in successive Tests of a series since 1949 and haven’t won at all across the Tasman since 2001 – 15 matches ago.
If that’s not damning enough, the world champions have won their past 26 home Tests in total stretching back to a loss to South Africa in Hamilton in 2009 and haven’t suffered consecutive home defeats to any rivals since France upstaged them twice back in 1994.
Lose on Saturday night and Australia’s Bledisloe Cup hopes could perish in a week.
“We know how tough it is to win in New Zealand so we’ve got to make the most of playing on our home patch,” Horwill said.
“There’s two games in New Zealand so I guess that makes this game coming up tomorrow night that little bit more critical because it is on our home turf.
“You’ve got to win your home games in these competitions to try and succeed.”
With new coach Ewen McKenzie urging his charges to back their attacking instincts, the Wallabies are hoping to spin the ball wide to gamebreaking wingers Israel Folau and James O’Connor.
But Horwill knows the Wallabies must win the all-important breakdown battle for that to happen.
“We’ve got to make sure that we address the numbers correctly – we don’t want to be found short at breakdown and we’ve got to make sure that we do the work first before we worry about running the ball,” he said.
“We need to make sure as a forward pack we give a platform to our backs to attack off because we’ve got a very dangerous backline that can really do some damage when they get clean ball.”
Horwill is hoping the new “crouch-bind-set” scrum laws, designed to reduce the number of collapses and being used for the first time in this weekend’s Rugby Championship opener, will aid the Wallabies.
“We’ve got to make sure that we get a result out of the scrum,” he said.
McCaw is playing his first Test in almost nine months, but Horwill is refusing to assume the champion flanker will be anything below his world-class best and says the return of their talismanic leader will only fuel the All Blacks’ belief that can inflict yet more Bledisloe pain on the Wallabies.
“Something that I don’t think can be underestimated from an All Black point of view is the effect he has on his teammates and the confidence that he gives them,” he said.
Wallabies: Jesse Mogg, Israel Folau, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Christian Lealiifano, James O’Connor, Matt Toomua, Will Genia, Ben Mowen, Michael Hooper, Hugh McMeniman, James Horwill, Rob Simmons, Ben Alexander, Stephen Moore, James Slipper. Reserves: Saia Fainga’a, Scott Sio, Sekope Kepu, Scott Fardy, Liam Gill, Nic White, Quade Cooper, Tevita Kuridrani.
All Blacks: Israel Dagg, Ben Smith, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Julian Savea, Aaron Cruden, Aaron Smith, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (capt), Liam Messam, Sam Whitelock, Luke Romano, Owen Franks, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Keven Mealamu, Ben Franks, Charlie Faumuina, Brodie Retallick, Sam Cane, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Beauden Barrett, Ryan Crotty.
Referee: Craig Joubert (RSA)