The All Blacks and Wallabies are preparing for a no-holds barred showdown in their Tri-Nations clash being played in Auckland today against the backdrop of the looming World Cup.
The top two teams in the world are both sides coming off solid bonus point wins against a hapless Springboks combination for what Wallabies coach Robbie Deans predicts will be an “epic” battle.
“There will be a lot of rugby played. Neither side is going to walk off the ground without having chanced their arm ... they’ll do that because neither side wants to become second,” he said.
At stake is the Bledisloe Cup, the trophy bitterly contested between the All Blacks and Wallabies annually, as well as the important opportunity to take a psychological advantage into the World Cup, which starts in New Zealand next month.
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said he was aware that history shows the All Blacks’ performance in the Tri-Nations “doesn’t count for a lot” at World Cup time, but admitted it was hard not to think ahead.
“We’d love to have a good performance here. The last time in New Zealand before the World Cup and obviously at this stadium there’s a little bit of that and we’re pretty keen to go out and have a good performance,” McCaw said.
Eden Park, also the venue for the World Cup final, is the All Blacks fortress where they have not lost for 17 years. The Wallabies last won there 25 years ago.
The prospect of the two sides meeting again on the park in the World Cup final was also in the All Blacks’ thinking.
“There’s a little bit of that underlying [in the team],” McCaw said. “The Bledisloe’s on the line, so it would be nice if we get a win and be able to hold onto that for another year and if we do the job right hopefully come October if that plays out like that it might help then.”
The All Blacks will be banking on winning the battle for possession with the return of Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Brad Thorn and Kieran Read giving them a near full-strength forward pack.
However, even if the Wallabies are forced to live off scraps of ball they have playmakers including Quade Cooper, Will Genia and Kurtley Beale in the backs who can turn a game at any time.
“In a Test match like this it comes down to one or two opportunities that can dictate what happens for the rest of the game,” McCaw said. “They certainly showed against the South Africans two weeks ago that they can give it a crack and they scored and they scored straight away again. They are a team that can do that to you.”
In an innovative move, powerhouse Wallabies wing Digby Ioane has been charged with defending the inside channel, taking the heat off Cooper who is not known for his defense, but who will have a free rein to focus on his potent attacking game.
“There’s no point in picking blokes like that and then trying to shackle them,” Deans said of Cooper.
With both sides promising running rugby, Genia said the Wallabies would also have to be accurate when kicking to foil the All Blacks counter-attack opportunities.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with