Brendan Gallagher previews the Bledisloe Cup

Quade CooperThis year's quick-fire Rugby seems to be hurtling to a conclusion almost before it began but the organisers couldn't have hoped for a more emotive and meaningful finale than a full-on meeting between Australia and at the ANZ Stadium Sydney – or the Olympic Stadium as we prefer to call it.
Both the great old rivals are unbeaten after one close scrape and one more comfortable win apiece and, of course, there is the Bledisloe Cup as well to take into consideration, both in Sydney next Saturday and then in Eden Park the following week when the two sides meet in a one-off, non-Championship, friendly.
Factor in the close proximity of the and the final appearance of All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw in a competitive match on Australian soil and you have all the ingredients for a cracker and that's before you add Australia's urgent need for a win over New Zealand into the equation.
In the last 22 Tests between the two nations – starting from the All Blacks 39-10 at Eden Park – Australia have tasted victory just twice, once in Hong Kong and once in Brisbane four years ago. That is not a record that sits well with the Aussie sporting public and you suspect that Michael Cheika's side, who are beginning to shape up well, would grow an extra leg if they could pull off a morale boosting win over the world champions.
Cheika, one of the canniest of coaches who rarely misses a trick, has already been busy playing his side's chances down and heaping lavish praise on New Zealand, a sensible move although I suspect the mood within the camp is much more positive.
“It's very obvious that New Zealand are the best team in the world, and I mean by a long way at this stage,” insists Cheika. “They've been so consistent over so many years. We've done nothing, we've played a couple of games, we snuck home in one, stuck at it against . We want to really try to keep improving so we can come into some shape over the next period before we go to the World Cup.”
Well yes, you could say Australia “snuck” home against South Africa. Or you could argue that it was a particularly gutsy effort against a team that were on fire for much of the first 55 minutes at Brisbane before Australia really showed what they were made of with two late tries by Michael Hooper and Tevita Kuridrani.
The experiment of introducing David Pocock at No.8 with half an hour left and playing him in the same backrow as Michael Hooper worked splendidly and the two props who came on – Scott Sio and Greg Holmes – did particularly well in a scrum that had already held its own.
In addition to those considerable plusses, hooker Stephen Moore returned from a career-threatening knee injury at hooker, Matt Giteau was bedded back into the team and went well and Quade Cooper and Will Genia were reunited at half-back.  All in all that was a pretty decent evening's work although a knee injury to Genia, which required minor surgery two days later, took the gloss off a little.
That generally positive theme was continued last week in Mendoza and although the 34-9 scoreline did flatter Australia a tad – Argentina went at them very hard in the first half – they did rather more than “stick it out”. This time Pocock started – for the first time in three injury plagued years – with Hooper coming on along with the front row replacements.
Again it appeared to work well with the winning going away via three second half tries with one of those coming from former Exeter Chiefs second-row Dean Mumm who has returned to Australia to stake a claim for World Cup recognition.

Ben Smith
Ben Smith

The only negatives were one or two incidents of ill-discipline, on and off the field. Israel Folau should have been yellow carded for a first half challenge, Cooper did spend ten minutes in the bin for a high tackle and Hooper was later cited for an off the ball punch on Nicolas Sanchez although in partial mitigation he was having his jersey pulled back pretty blatantly at the time.
The provocation was ample and the punch obvious but the week's ban seems to have divided opinion. The ARU have appealed even that short suspension believing Hooper was in no way guilty while the SANZAR disciplinary review officer – Canada's Graeme Mew – has referred it back to the SANZAR appeals committee believing it to be excessively lenient. A final decision is expected today.
Whatever the case he is available for selection again next Saturday.
Cheika also had to deal with two Cooper ‘incidents' – the first being when his fly-half attracted some heat for a ‘blue' tweet after the game which was reportedly in reply to fairly critical comments on him by a column from Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald. Next up owner Mourad Boudjellal said in a newspaper interview that Cooper and the “moron” ARU were going to be “as broke as Greece” when he had finished taking legal action after he had reneged on a two-year contract to join the club.
Australia's coach admitted the language Cooper used was a “mistake” but pretty much left it at that refusing to make it into a cause celebre. “It's all about discipline and we're all trying to improve that on and off the field,” said Cheika. “People have a right to have an opinion, but it's about having the discipline to deal with it. People make mistakes. I've certainly made a few in my time and that's all it is.”
Meanwhile he used a clever bit of reverse psychology with the verbal prodding from distant by agreeing that Boudjellal was right to fight for his man but wrong to use such a crass analogy. “I don't think it's necessary to have that type of language, it's not an issue to be joking about, there's a lot of people struggling over there (Greece).  I've got nothing against him fighting for his player. That's his right, just like we want to fight for our players.”
As for New Zealand are they quite as dominant as Cheika would like us to believe? Certainly Steve Hansen hasn't been going overboard about any of their performances although certain individuals – Charles Puitau most of the time, Sonny Bill Williams against Argentina and Lima Sopoaga against South Africa – and passages of play have met with his approval. And he's right.
If you strip the emotion out of the spectacle and occasion in Apia they were poor against and a little of the gloss was taken off their home win against Argentina by conceding two soft lineout tries to Agustin Creevy which clearly irritated Hansen.
That would explain his ridiculous assertion that Creevy's brace was in some way illegal while Richie McCaw's try from a similar lineout rumble was in some way above such criticism.
The game last week against South Africa at Ellis Park was a belter for the neutral to watch but that same neutral would probably also conclude that South Africa should probably have won. At times they seemed to have New Zealand on the rack.
Hansen was delighted with his team's “fortitude” to use his word but spent more time after the game talking about what needed to be put right rather than praising another exciting win over the number two ranked team in the world.  As has to be the case in World Cup year.
Perhaps surprisingly so close to the World Cup there still seems to be a few unresolved selection issues that Hansen needs to put to bed over the next two games. You can only field two centres which means one of Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith and Sonny Bill Williams won't be starting in their Gun XV this autumn. Jerome Kaino has been quiet by his stellar standards and is possibly coming under threat from Liam Messam.
Ben Smith will surely at some stage be given a start at full-back and what do we make of Sopoaga's terrific debut at fly-half?
A fully fit Dan Carter still heads the pecking order there but the exciting young Highlander gave Hansen a tantilsing glimpse of what he could potentially be bringing off the bench in some games. Beauden Barrett is the accepted number two but he can cover virtually any position, Sopoaga can bring real virtuosity to the fly-half position if needed.

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