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'We believe': Why Wallabies are ready to upset 'beatable' All Blacks

Australian players (L) watch New Zealand players perform the haka before the Rugby Championship 2023 and Bledisloe Cup Test match between Australia and New Zealand at the MCG in Melbourne on July 29, 2023. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

After falling to a disastrous defeat in front of almost 84,000 fans at the MCG last weekend, the wounded Wallabies believe they can turn it around against a “beatable” All Blacks outfit.

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Australia, who lost star props Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou to injuries at the ‘G, couldn’t convert pressure into points as they succumbed to a 38-7 defeat.

It was the Wallabies’ third defeat in as many Tests under legendary coach Eddie Jones. They risk falling to an 0-4 record if they fail to beat the in-form All Blacks in Dunedin on Saturday.

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Rugby fans and even bookmakers may have cast the Wallabies aside to practically near-impossible odds of a win, but the men in gold “believe” even if others don’t.

“We believe they’re beatable,” Wallaby Samu Kerevi told reporters. “They’re a class side and a great team but we believe in our gameplan, we believe in the squad and the talent that we have.

“We’ll go out there and put our best foot forward.

“Any team on any day can be beaten, we saw that at the last World Cup and even leading up to all these Test matches. We’ll just have to play our best game.

“You can’t let too much pressure off on a team like that and last week we just couldn’t do that well enough.”

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The Wallabies started their new era under coach Jones with a disastrous defeat at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria last month, before returning home to face Argentina at Sydney’s CommBank Stadium.

But, at least on the scoreboard, that wasn’t a successful outing either.

Playing against Los Pumas, who were coached by former Wallabies boss Michael Cheika, Australia shot out of the blocks with an early try to Len Ikitau.

But the star centre left the field shortly after with an injury – a blow that has ruled Ikitau out of both Bledisloe Cup Tests. The Wallabies failed to fill the void that Ikitau left – going on to lose a thriller.

Australia fell to another defeat in their third and final Rugby Championship fixture, with the All Blacks overcoming a valiant performance the Wallabies.

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But let the record show, as things stand, the Wallabies are 0-3 under coach Jones.

“After a few losses like that the team gets a bit hurt and gets a bit down but Eddie’s been so great in that space,” Kerevi added. “We understand it’s unacceptable to get those results.

“The way he’s come hard on us in terms of our own standards, building habits, and we can only do that through training. He’s been hard on us at training and it’s not just him, it’s more the squad and us being hard on each other.

“The byproduct of that will just be the results on the weekend.

“We play class sides every week, especially in this Rugby Championship. We’ve got Argentina, South Africa and the All Blacks of course. It’s always going to be a tough match for us but we’re looking forward to that and those challenges ahead.”

The All Blacks clash with the Wallabies at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium kicks off at 2.35 pm (NZST) on Saturday afternoon.

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Comments

12 Comments
m
mitch 509 days ago

Lot's of changes to the AB side so this is a good chance for the Wallabies. Shutting down DMac will be the task.

F
Former 509 days ago

If the Wallabies manage to be somewhat competitive they should be grateful. Of course they have to gee themselves up but at some stage the bluster and posturing wears pretty thin.....

A
Andrew 509 days ago

LOL They really are irrepressible, the Aussies. Remind me of the Black Knight in Monty Pythons Holy Grail who when relieved of all his limbs still spat defiance that he would bite his enemy to death.

B
Bruiser 509 days ago

To qualify as a legendary coach you have to actually win something. Talking a lot doesnt qualify you

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JW 5 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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