Wallabies nipping at heels of sleeping AB giants
OPINION: Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have ourselves a contest.
Forget the All Blacks strolling through the world cup, a-la 1987. Just ain't gonna happen. Last Saturday night in Brisbane told me all I need to know about that.
Call me a pessimist, or call me a realist, but I get the feeling that the gap has all but closed between the Wallabies and All Blacks. Where once there was a chasm, now there might be little more than a sliver between the trans-Tasman rivals, who appear destined to battle it out in the global tournament's showpiece game.
Four years ago, when the New Zealand Rugby Union practically gift-wrapped Robbie Deans and sent him to John O'Neill with a "Best Wishes" card, a scenario started building in my head that involved the rejected Cantabrian having the final say come October 23, 2011.
That, in case you haven't been paying attention, is the date of the cup final at Eden Park.
Given all that the All Blacks have been through at world cups, the concept of our finest Super Rugby coach being severely disenfranchised, then handed to the Aussies on a plate to build a team over four years, then returning to wreak the ultimate in revenge had a certain, well, symmetry about it. Deans still has his work cut out, and last week's news that he'd lost outstanding prop Benn Robinson to a torn anterior cruciate ligament was a body blow to the Wallabies' chances. If there's one spot they can ill afford to lose key men, it's in the front-row pillars.
It's also going to be exceedingly difficult for any team to defeat the All Blacks at a world cup in New Zealand. It hasn't happened yet, and it's going to take something special for someone to put together the sort of game that will be required to roll Richie McCaw and co on home soil.
But it could be that Deans is building just the sort of team, and depth, capable of delivering that sort of performance.
Even through a record 10 losses in a row to the All Blacks between 2008 and 2010, you never lost the impression that Deans was chipping away at his structure, refining, rebuilding, rejuvenating. There was short-term pain – plenty of it – in the name of long-term gain.
Now the perfect storm appears to be gathering for the Wallabies.
It wasn't quite chills up the back of the spine stuff, but the Super Rugby final underlined a suspicion I've had ever since the Wallabies ended their losing streak at the hands of the All Blacks, in Hong Kong, late last year.
The Australians now no longer fear us. They have the guile and the style, the muscle and the hustle, to roll the best New Zealand can offer. And here's the thing – they know it.
The Queensland Reds showed that when they took the Crusaders on at their own game, and beat them. It was the Reds who stepped up and made the big plays down the stretch. It was the Reds who absorbed the pressure, and then turned the tables when it counted. And Reds like Will Genia, Beau Robinson and Digby Ioane were the most influential figures.
Sure, the Crusaders were out on their feet after their season from hell, and the Queenslanders didn't have to leave Brisbane through the playoffs.
But here's something that's more than a random thought. While New Zealand's best rugby players seem to be on a form plateau, at best, Australia's are getting better and better as the world cup draws closer.
Think of players like Genia and Quade Cooper, like James O'Connor and Kurtley Beale, like Ioane and Adam Ashley-Cooper, like Scott Higginbotham and Robinson, like David Pocock and Matt Hodgson.
And then think about how many All Blacks are on top of their games, raising the bar with every performance, and making things happen out there on the field.
Feeling nervous yet?
