New Zealand’s dominance of world rugby is set to continue on Saturday when they take on Australia in the Rugby Championship in Auckland.
The All Blacks’ record at Eden Park is one of the best in the world and they haven’t lost a match against Australia there since 1986.
The last time the All Blacks were beaten by any team at Eden Park was 24 years ago — in 1994 when France surprised them.
And the last time Australia beat them anywhere in New Zealand was in 2001 in Dunedin.
That provides the type of confidence which allows the New Zealanders to not even worry about their opponents’ game plan.
All Blacks captain Kieran Read says: “Look we know what the challenge it is. We’ve focused on it quite heavily, more on us you know. It’s really important we try and get our performance as right as we can and it’s great for us to be at home and we’re really looking forward to playing in front of our own fans. We want to play as well as we can, get our performance right and hopefully, that will dictate things on the scoreboard.”
The All Blacks made only two forced changes to their starting line-up. Backline players, Ryan Crotty and Rieko Loane are injured.
Ngani Laumape replaces Crotty at inside centre while Jordy Barret was selected at fullback with Ben Smith moving to the wing.
After last week’s 38-13 win in Sydney, victory for the All Blacks would see them retain the Bledisloe Cup for a 15th successive season after winning it back from the Wallabies in 2003.
The match at Eden Park kicks-off at 09h35 on Saturday morning, while Argentina and South Africa clash in Mendoza at nine on Saturday evening South African team.
