The Wallabies may have shocked the All blacks with all a 16-all draw in the 2020 opener - but can they do it again?
“We’ve got a little bit of a history of starting slow in a year and it happened again last year,” New Zealand coach Ian Foster said on Monday.
“It’s something the All Blacks have tried to fix for decades and never quite got it right, but, at the end of the day, they played well in Wellington and it was one of those games that it was wet, it was windy, both teams were up.”
With New Zealand facing Tonga and Fiji in recent time to brush up, and Australia impressive against France in a three-Test series, both have shown glimpses of what's ahead.
WHAT AUSTRALIA DID WELL AGAINST FRANCE
“One thing that's showing its real value for Australia is the scrum; that's been building up over the years,” former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika told Sporting News.
“We've got a really strong group of front rowers and hookers coming through and it showed its worth in that Test series. Individually it probably didn't win Australia the series, but it really had implications in key moments and allowed Australia to have a real strength knowing that even when they made a mistake - say a knock-on - there were still an opportunity for them to get points or get back some field position in the game.”
WHAT AUSTRALIAN CAN LEARN FROM NEW ZEALAND V FIJI
“The challenge that was brought by the Fijian side, physically and also technically, in different areas was with the big one,” Cheika said.
“New Zealand were able to meet that and get their game going to have score points that probably really didn't match up to the intensity and the closeness of that feature.
“Australia would have seen some things there for sure in the way that Fiji were able to - I won't say shock - but take advantage of certain areas in New Zealand’s defence.”
BLEDISLOE CUP GAME ONE PREVIEW
Eden Park; what an occasion it’ll be.
Cheika breaks down the entire game and who to watch in the video below.
