Since 1931 Australia and New Zealand have contested the Bledisloe Cup 113 times. New Zealand have emerged winners in these contests 77 times and Australia 32, with 4 draws.
The Tri Nations, have resulted in New Zealand winning 42 out of 62 matches and Australia winning 24 out of 62. New Zealand has won the TN 9 times, and Australia twice.
Despite the fact that Australia has won the RWC twice and New Zealand only once, it’s not hard to see where rugby superiority really lies between the two nations, but there are probably deeper and darker questions lurking in our minds about this. Why is it that the All Blacks rarely follow one poor performance with another, whereas the Wallabies seem to follow one really good performance with a poor one regularly? We’ve seen enough of that in the last couple or years to tear our hair out.
Why is it that we only expect a Wallaby win when they are playing on home soil? Why is that the All Blacks are the same force to deal with whether they are playing in Perth or Palmerston North? And why is it that a match played in cold wet conditions, no matter where it is, immediately gives the All Blacks the advantage?
Why is it that the All Blacks can be virtually counted on to win, wherever they are playing and under whatever conditions they are playing? Why can’t the Wallabies follow a good performance with another good performance? How come we have to suffer the utter despair and humiliation of being beaten by Scotland?
There is a potent reason why the accrued results of our two nation’s rugby fortunes differ so radically. And because of it I don’t see a major reversal any time soon. Australian rugby experienced a wonderful golden age in the period 1998 to 2002 when they won 8 tests to the All Blacks 3. But since 2003 it’s all been one way traffic with the All Blacks having won 16 tests to the Wallabies 3; the trough deepening last year when the Wallabies lost 4 out of 4.
There is some evidence to suggest that the Wallabies are on the cusp of another golden age, I’m not confident, even if it does happen, that it can be sustained. For one thing we are playing more Bledisloe Cup matches these days and the format for these is definitely in favour of the current holders. With recent history as a guide you would wonder how plausible it is to beat the All Blacks three times out of four or three times out of three when at least one of those games will be in New Zealand.
Skill levels, game savvy, athleticism, courage, physicality and toughness, mental hardness and coaching resources are all important issues but Australians are no less endowed in these attributes than New Zealanders. I think there is something far more important at work here and it’s what I call the INENSITY OF PUBLIC EXPECTATION. Simply put New Zealanders expect far, far more from the All Blacks than Australians do from the Wallabies.
About 0.4% of the entire population of Australia are registered rugby players. Add other family members etc and the fan base will be a bit bigger than that. In New Zealand around 3.4% of the population are registered rugby players. Admittedly it’s an arbitrary measure but the number of registered players in each country gives an indication of the level of core support the game has. In Australia it could be around 10%. In New Zealand it could go as high as 50%. Furthermore the game in Australia is outflanked by three other football codes that people are more interested in than rugby.
In comparison to the Wallabies the All Blacks have to satisfy a very demanding section of their own countrymen who constantly shake the fist of chief shareholders in the nation’s national game. The intensity of their expectation of the All Blacks is white hot, unforgiving and relentless.
The intensity of public expectation on them is what makes Graham Henry’s blistering speeches to the All Blacks at half time harvest instant results. It’s the factor in the All Blacks maintaining back to back wins in situations which often look dismal at half time. One wonders how Robbie Deans gets through to his team to really switch them on. How does he extract that instant willingness to go out there and leave their guts on the ground by fulltime; to say nothing of lifting the pace of the game and increasing the level of accuracy in everything that is done. How can he do it? Most people at the park that evening are going to go home and switch on an AFL or NRL match regardless of what they see the Wallabies do.
When the All Blacks lose they are mercilessly whipped from every corner of the media and in every corner of every pub and club. There is no respite for them until they play again and redeem themselves, and keep doing it. It has an amazing effect in raising their consciousness.
The difference in the intensity of public expectation between the two rugby nations was, in my opinion, never better illustrated when Matt Giteau missed his final kick at goal against the Brits in the second test. He gave an embarrassed little grin to himself as much as to say, “Oh gosh, silly me”. He commented later that is wasn’t his proudest moment but he was moving on. If he had been an All Black he wouldn’t be moving very far. The media and half the New Zealand population would have butchered him.
All Blacks don’t carry this expectation around like a burden. They carry it around like a talisman. Only one thing will equal it. Excellence in every aspect of the game. That’s what the Wallabies of today have to aim for. Every single one of them.
