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Report: All Blacks set for mid-week Bledisloe Cup clash against Wallabies
By Sam Smith
The Wallabies are reportedly set to host the All Blacks in a rare mid-week Bledisloe Cup clash in Australia later this year.
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According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the trans-Tasman foes will do battle in the first match of a two-test series at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on September 15.
That match, which falls on a Thursday, has been scheduled to be played during the week rather than the weekend in a bid to avoid clashes with NRL and AFL playoff matches.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground will host the AFL preliminary final on September 17, while the Melbourne Storm could feature in an NRL semi-final at AAMI Park that same weekend.
As such, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Rugby Australia [RA] sought to move its sole Bledisloe Cup fixture from September 17 to September 15, which New Zealand Rugby [NZR] has reportedly agreed to.
That would make the match the first mid-week Bledisloe Cup test since 1994, when Wallabies legend George Gregan famously denied All Blacks great Jeff Wilson a match-winning try with a last-gasp tackle in Sydney.
The match will also be the first Bledisloe Cup test to be staged in Melbourne since 2010, when the All Blacks beat the Wallabies 49-28 in a fixture that doubled as a Tri-Nations clash.
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NZR has already confirmed the second Bledisloe Cup test will be held at Eden Park in Auckland on September 24.
The Bledisloe Cup, which will be contested as part of the Rugby Championship, has reverted to a two-test series this year after having been a three-test, and sometimes four-test, series – outside of World Cup years – since 2006.
The All Blacks and Wallabies will both play the Springboks and Los Pumas in their preceding Rugby Championship matches, while the New Zealanders will host Ireland in a three-test home series in July.
Australia will simultaneously take on England in a three-test series on home soil in three months’ time.
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