Harry Wilson explains the ‘really good pictures’ Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry painted for the Wallabies
Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson and, inset, All Blacks boss Dave Rennie
Ambitious Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson has talked up his team’s chances of upsetting the All Blacks in Auckland.
New Zealand haven’t been beaten by any country at their Eden Park fortress since 1994, and it’s been 40 years since the Wallabies last won at that ground back in 1986 under Alan Jones.
However, in August last year the Wallabies ended a 62-year wait for a victory at the Springboks’ Ellis Park in Johannesburg and, having defeated South Africa again in their most recent outing – the September 27 fixture in Perth despite at one stage playing with just 11 players – there is optimism that Australia are going places with Les Kiss now at the helm.
The Wallabies head into Saturday’s Eden Park encounter unbeaten in their last six matches, and Wilson has admitted that Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry – the four-match series between the Springboks and the All Blacks – has been of great help in designing a plan to combat Dave Rennie’s New Zealand.
“Different light…”
“The preparation’s been very different,” Wilson told reporters during Friday’s pitch-side media briefing at Eden Park. “I guess with South Africa we know it’s a lot of set-piece, high balls, and they don’t play as much footy as New Zealand. This week we know there’s probably going to be a lot of long phases and the ball going side to side and we have prepped for that, and we understand there’s also going to be a really tough set-piece battle Saturday night.
“But it is obviously nice seeing a four-game series against South Africa. That helped with our preparation for them, and now we have looked back on the series again in a different light to see how it can help us against the All Blacks and they have painted some really good pictures that if we can do it well it should really help us Saturday night.”
Wilson skippered the Wallabies to their 38-22 win over the Springboks at Ellis Park 14 months ago. While the squad’s build-up emphasis in New Zealand has not been on the Eden Park hoodoo, what was achieved in Johannesburg demonstrated that anything is possible.
“Ellis Park definitely gives this group confidence about it. That was 62 years. No one really gave us a shot, but we went out there, played a good game and we got the result. And this group, we just wanted to keep improving and we have done that since then. That has shown the group what we can do on our day and why not.
“It [Eden Park] is obviously a great place to play. It’s an unbelievable stadium and to be honest, we haven’t really touched on it much as a group.
“We know we’re facing a really tough All Black side and we’ve really tried to worry about ourselves, trying to worry about improvements in our game. We have had a really good week’s preparation and that should give us a bit of confidence going into Saturday night.
“It is what it is when you’ve been undefeated for that long; it’s always going to be talked about, so there’s only one way to change that. But as I said, we have just been worried about ourselves, worried about our preparation this week and we’re really happy with how we’re sitting at the moment.
“We have got a really good plan. We’ve tried to adapt our game to what we think will work Saturday night and we’ve shown ourselves in patches over the last couple of years that we’re a team who can have a really good 30 minutes against the All Blacks and we know how to beat them.
“We’re probably going to need a good 80 minutes, 80-plus minutes, so I like to think if we put it together, we’ll be in for a good shot.
“We’ve just got to worry about ourselves. I’m not giving them [the All Blacks] any more ammo. We just want to go out there and play some good footy. We have prepared well. We feel like we’re playing some good footy. There’s a lot of confidence in this group and now we’ve got an almighty Test here at Eden Park.
“I feel as if, as a group, we have been developing, improving, and we spoke about a lot last year. We knew we were nowhere near the finished product, but we knew we’re a team that wanted to learn; we wanted to keep getting better.
“And we have started to see signs of the hard work we’ve done starting to flourish a bit. As I said, the group’s got a lot of confidence in ourselves, and I just hope we keep on improving. We’re a team who’s hungry and just wants to be better and it’s a great opportunity for us Saturday night.”
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
The Bledisloe Cup clash is Australia’s first time coming up against an All Blacks side coached by Dave Rennie, the former Wallabies boss. Rennie was at the helm when Australia last defeated New Zealand, a November 2020 fixture in Brisbane.
Wilson was in the Wallabies’ starting line-up that day and he has nothing but respect for his former mentor now that he is on the opposite side. “I really enjoyed playing under Dave,” he said.
“He gave me my Test debut and played a few Tests under him, and I’ll always be really appreciative of that and his love of counterattack and using the ball. I definitely learned a lot of that from him in my early age there and I know he’s got a lot of respect in this group.
“He was a very loved member of the Wallabies when he was here and it’s going to be different going up against him, that’s for sure.”