Wallabies see a Bledisloe Cup opportunity as the All Blacks regroup after a record loss

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia may have its best chance in more than two decades to recover the Bledisloe Cup from New Zealand when the teams meet Saturday at Auckland’s Eden Park in the first of two tests.

While Australia hasn’t beaten the All Blacks at the Auckland stadium since 1986, the Wallabies are a team on the rise under new head coach Joe Schmidt.

Australia will have to win Saturday’s match and the return match at Perth, Western Australia, next week to win the Bledisloe Cup for the first time in 23 years. Two wins also would likely be enough to also see the Wallabies win the Rugby Championship for the first time since 2015.

Australia leads the tournament after four rounds with 11 points, ahead of New Zealand and South Africa with 10 and Argentina with nine.

“I think if you gave them a choice, (the Wallabies) would take the Bledisloe over the Rugby Championship,” Schmidt said. “Just the tradition of it; it’s older and more ingrained than the more modern rugby championship, as much as they certainly want to go after that and they’re in good position to do it.”

The attitude among the New Zealand players is the same.

“We treat this as the second-most important trophy to us after the World Cup,” All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor said. “We often touch on the times when we didn’t have it. There’s been past players come in and talk about that and how hard it is to win.

“I’m sure Australia are sitting there looking at this as an opportunity and rightly so for them. But for us, we’ve got the utmost respect for that trophy.”

Schmidt has guided a resurgent Wallabies team this season, winning back fans with strong performances against the British and Irish Lions and wins over South Africa and Argentina. His All Blacks counterpart Scott Robertson is under pressure after New Zealand’s 43-10 loss to the Springboks, its heaviest-ever test defeat.

If the All Blacks also lose their 51-test unbeaten record at Eden Park on Saturday, Robertson’s position likely would be in jeopardy. The All Blacks already have lost six tests on his watch.

The All Blacks players already have acknowledged their failings against South Africa and promised improvement.

“We’ve had a good look in the mirror,” Taylor said. “The coaches have taken it on board, but as players we’re the ones out there. We’re the ones who need to fix it.”

We had the week off so I’m pretty sure most of us had a pretty sore heart around letting down the jersey, our country.”

The Wallabies will be looking for a better start on Saturday than they have had in recent matches. They were 22-0 down against South Africa before rallying to win 38-22 and behind against Argentina before winning 28-24. Their rally came too late to win the second test against the Pumas.

The All Blacks’ problem has been poor finishes: they conceded 36 unanswered points in an ineffective second half against South Africa.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby