Australia scrumhalf Tate McDermott admits they have their work cut out in their next two clashes against the All Blacks.
A resurgent Wallabies will close out their 2025 Rugby Championship campaign with back-to-back matches with their cross-Tasman rivals, the All Blacks. They currently top the table by one slender point.
Not only are the Wallabies seeking their first Rugby Championship title since 2015, but also their first Bledisloe Cup since 2002. To do so, they will have to break the Eden Park hoodoo, where the All Blacks are undefeated in 51 Tests.
History makes it sound like a tall order for Joe Schmidt’s proud men. However, this group of players is fostering true Aussie grit.
On last year’s November tour, they defeated England at Twickenham for the first time since 2015. Then, they downed the Springboks in the 2025 Rugby Championship opener, breaking a 62-year drought at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
“I think you can use that as evidence to what hasn’t been done for a very long time,” quipped McDermott.
“It’s quite a different kettle of fish, really. But for us, as long as our minds are on us, we’ll be right.
“We’ve got to be really intentional with how we plan our week. Joe will have an amazing plan for us, but we’ve got to start putting those pieces together on the training field first.
“Twickenham, Ellis Park … they’re the things that bring belief to this side, but it’s about how we transfer that belief off the field, that’s something we’ve got to get right.”
But the Wallabies are coming off a narrow 28-26 defeat at the hands of the Los Pumas on Saturday. A sore point was their ill-discipline, with a whopping 14-7 penalty count going against the Wallabies.
McDermott was the first to say that that’s not good enough.
“It starts with our discipline because we’ve been really clean the whole year up until probably the last two weeks,” McDermott said.
“That’s something we’ve really got to understand why that has all of a sudden come out of nowhere and rectify that quickly.
“These two games coming up, nothing’s bigger than them. That game in Auckland, that’s an absolutely massive game for this side, and we can’t be giving them a 20-point lead.”
