Wallabies plan better start against All Blacks in Wellington

With nothing on the line barring pride, New Zealand and Australia are hoping to use their last match of the Rugby Championship in Wellington on Saturday to fix up parts of their game before they head north to take on the best in Europe.

New Zealand secured custody of the Bledisloe Cup for another year with their 31-28 win over the Wallabies in Sydney last week but Australia’s fightback to within three points exposed their struggles to close out games this year.

Their bid for a 21st Rugby Championship title might still be alive had they managed to defend a 27-17 lead with 11 minutes to go in the first of their two recent losses to world champions SA.

Once famous for their ability to score late to win close contests, the All Blacks have not put a single point on the board in the last 20 minutes of any of their five Tests in the tournament this season.

“We’ve talked about the accuracy and the discipline and the experience of the group that are coming on [from the bench],” coach Scott Robertson said after naming his team on Thursday.

“At the end of the day, you just focus on what you need to do ... focus on solutions around it, we train it and get on with it.”

Lock Patrick Tuipulotu will bring 45 Tests worth of experience to the bench for Saturday’s match, while Damian McKenzie will be expected to make a difference off the bench after Beauden Barrett was handed the No 10 shirt.

Barrett will partner his old club mate TJ Perenara in the starting halfback pairing at the “Cake Tin” stadium where they combined for the Wellington Hurricanes for several years.

That might also help New Zealand put to bed their relatively poor record in Wellington, where they have not won a Test in five attempts going back to 2018.

While Robertson feels his team is only small details away from fully finding their groove, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has an altogether bigger job on his hands.

The encouraging fightback last week only highlighted the extent of their early capitulation to the All Blacks, who scored three tries in the first 16 minutes.

Before that there was the second-half implosion in Santa Fe, when Argentina ran in seven tries after the break to rack up a record 67-27 victory.

Schmidt has long been clear that his project to revive the Wallabies is process, not results, driven but did say a better start was necessary if they were to have any hope of a first win over the All Blacks in New Zealand since 2001.

“I think as far as we can manage, all we can do is try to go out and play as best we can and the outcome will be whatever the outcome is,” the New Zealander told a news conference on Thursday after naming his team.

“We’ve got to start better, obviously, than last week, and then be able to maintain a real focus, because it’s a split second and New Zealand can get away from you so quickly.” 

Reuters