ROSEMARY ABBOTT | Sport
MATE YA DREAMING
The Wallabies are brimming with confidence ahead of this year’s Bledisloe Cup series against the All Blacks, insisting that 2025 will finally be different, even though every other year since 2002 has proven otherwise.
With a genuinely tight Rugby Championship which has seen the Wallabies notch up a couple of wins, it has given them some strange confidence like they can now beat the All Blacks back to back over the next two weeks.
“The players in this current crop wouldn’t even remember the days of Waltzing Matilda, it was the last time they were actually good!” laughed one All Blacks fan, confused to where this Wallabies confidence is coming from.
In what seems like a lifetime ago, which technically it is for some of the Wallabies players, Australia held the Bledisloe Cup with the likes of George Gregan and Stephen Larkham, 23 years ago.
The All Blacks have not lost at Eden Park since 1994 as well, with analysts naturally remaining cautiously sceptical about the chances of Australia winning once, yet alone twice in one calendar year to get the Bledisloe Cup back.
“The Rugby Championship is incredibly tight this year, but historically, the Wallabies’ confidence has never correlated with actually winning the Bledisloe Cup. In fact, it usually does the exact opposite.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence, including 23 consecutive years of near misses, heartbreak, and long-distance grainy YouTube highlights of their last triumph, the team is oddly confident.
“We’ve got new players, fresh energy, and a belief stronger than ever,” said winger Max Jorgenson, who only became familiar with what the Bledisloe Cup was recently due to being born in 2004.
More to come.
