To beat New Zealand at home, all the stars must align. You’ve got to pick a smart side, play the right style, win over the referee and catch a little luck along the way. Silencing the crowd early, with fast points or fierce attack and defence, helps too. Even then, there are no guarantees against the All Blacks. And they are never more dangerous than when wounded, as Scott Robertson’s side certainly is after their worst ever Test defeat last week, a 43-10 spifflication by South Africa in Wellington.
Yet instead of smelling blood and making plans to dismantle an enemy in disarray, the Wallabies inexplicably sent two of their most important players on magical mystery tours to the far side of the planet. James O’Connor and Will Skelton were allowed to return to their clubs Leicester and La Rochelle despite being crucial to Australia’s chances of ending a 23-year Bledisloe Cup drought and snapping New Zealand’s 31-year-long, 51-Test unbeaten streak at their “fortress” of Eden Park.
O’Connor left Brisbane on Monday night and got the SOS to return just 36 hours later. Even for a 67-Test veteran, 31,000km and 48 hours at altitude isn’t an ideal tune-up. O’Connor’s cool hands are now in camp in Auckland and coach Joe Schmidt has jolted the jetlag out of the 35-year-old by giving him starting duties in the Bledisloe opener on Saturday. It pushes Tane Edmed to the bench and Tom Lynagh out of the squad, and gives O’Connor an old conspirator in half Tate McDermott to attack from the get-go.
By deploying savagery-with-a-smile, the 203cm and 145kg Skelton was big in every way against the British & Irish Lions, swinging the series with his uncompromising attitude. The 33-year-old missed the Argentina Tests to return to the French Top 14 only to be benched for the first game and have rain cancel his second. Skelton will link with the squad in Perth for the second Bledisloe Test, but too late for this must-win match which kicks off, nonsensically, in a direct scheduling clash with the AFL grand final.
It’s a dog’s breakfast Rugby Australia could easily have avoided. As it stands the Wallabies have lost two key players to calf injuries this week, Rob Valetini tweaking the getaway stick that has troubled him all year and fullback Andrew Kellaway also sore. It forces Schmidt to shuffle Tom Hooper to blindside flank, pair Nick Frost with 201cm Lukhan Salakaia-Loto as the locks and move star Max Jorgensen to No 15, trusting his fighting bantams Corey Toole and Harry Potter on the wings.
Is it a side to emulate the famous 1986 Wallabies and snap the Eden Park hoodoo? Perhaps. Of all the golden warriors across 22 teams and 39 years to try and fail, Schmidt’s 2025 side has the best chance. In the last 10 months, they have defied slow starts to storm home in dam-busting victories over England, the Lions, Fiji, South Africa and Argentina. Even without finding a complete 80-minute performance, these Wallabies have belief and fight to the end finding ways to win.
For that, kudos is due to the coach and his deputies Mike Cron and Laurie Fischer. At 60, Schmidt has made immense personal sacrifices to continue at the helm this season. But after re-teaching his young squad the basics in season one, he is now building an iron core of experienced campaigners and exciting young talent. At long last, Australian rugby is developing lethal weapons to hurt the world’s best sides. But despite leading the Rugby Championship, Australia still rank seventh in the world.
But with Rugby Australia’s coffers full after the Lions tour windfall, two of the lost boys of Australian rugby are now back on the retention radar. After lighting up rugby league as the NRL’s leading try scorer in 2025, skilful winger Mark Nawaqanitawase is reputedly keen to return to Wallaby gold for the 2027 World Cup in Australia. Likewise, flyhalf Carter Gordon – another gun misfired at the 2023 World Cup debacle – is being wooed to return from the NRL to solve the riddle of who wears the No 10 jersey.
For now, it’s these 23 players charged with making a little history. The last time the men in gold won a Bledisloe Test at Eden Park in 1986, All Blacks coach Brian Lochore walked into the sheds afterwards and told the triumphant Australians: “You were the better team and we admire the way you play the game.” That measure of respect from an old foe can’t be gifted, it has to be earned. After 39 years and 22 defeats at the venue since, the 2025 Wallabies must storm “The Fortress” to seize it.
