The two sides have experienced vastly contrasting fortunes in this shortened addition of the Rugby Championship with the Kiwis showing great improvement from the class of 2022 while the Wallabies have fallen off the boil somewhat.
The Rugby Championship: Round Three
Australia v New Zealand
Saturday 29 July
Melbourne Cricket Ground
To Win
Australia 7/2 | Draw 33/1 | New Zealand 1/6
Eddie Jones’ tenure at the helm of Australian Rugby has not got off to a positive start with the veteran international coach overseeing defeats at the hands of South Africa (43-12) and Argentina (31-34).
While the aforementioned results will be worrying for Jones especially considering South Africa were not at full strength and Argentina had been hammered 12-41 in Mendoza a week prior, Jones will take some solace from the showings from some of his players.
Two such players are Will Skelton and Mark Nawaqanitawase. Both players produced solid performances in the three point defeat to Argentina with the latter chewing up metres for fun and scoring a brilliant intercept try that should have won the hosts the game, while the latter was a menace in the carry and solid at the set piece.
While Australia are yet to get a win under their belts, the All Blacks have had no such problems starting their Rugby Championship title defence with a 12-41 bonus point victory over Argentina and then following that up with a 35-20 victory over their biggest rivals, the Springboks that sees them only needing two points from this fixture to ensure they retain their Rugby Championship title.
While the Kiwis will be pleased with claiming yet another Rugby Championship title, they will be more happy with the form shown by some of their players, particularly Damien McKenzie who dominated the game at fly-half against Argentina and Richie Mo’unga who did the same against South Africa the following weekend.
Speaking of McKenzie and Mo’unga, it will be interesting to see which of the two tens start this weekend. I suspect each man will be given a Bledisloe Cup game to impress in so whoever doesn’t crack the start this week will probably start the Bledisloe 2 fixture the following week.
In terms of team news, the Australians are likely to still be without skipper Michael Hooper, who is still struggling with a calf injury.
I feel the Australians are due a big performance and while I can’t see them winning this one, I can see them giving their neighbours a run for their money.
Verdict: NZ
