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Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper was a regular target for All Blacks fans at Eden Park.
The paranoid Australian rugby media has raised safety concerns for the Wallabies at Eden Park if they beat the All Blacks there on Sunday.
A victory would be a breakthrough for the resurgent Wallabies who have not won on the field since 1986. It would also see them put a hand in the Bledisloe Cup after last weekend’s draw in Wellington with the series set to cross Tasman for the other. . two tests.
So could there be a public reaction? Certainly Auckland’s crowds aren’t always kind to Australian sports teams – kangaroos and cricketers have faced abuse there and former Wallabies star Quade Cooper was a favorite target for Eden’s faithful. Park, but the tabloid focus on news.com four days after this juicy sequel seems a bit of a stretch.
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John Plumtree says the All Blacks players were “pretty honest” about their individual performances against the Wallabies.
“The Wallabies will have to keep their wits about them if they accomplish the unthinkable and defeat the All Blacks at Eden Park amid concerns that it could trigger a nasty reaction in Tasmania,” they reported Thursday.
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“It has been 34 years since the All Blacks lost to Australia in the notoriously hostile cauldron of Auckland, but the Kiwis are suddenly under intense pressure to maintain their winning streak.”
They noted that last week’s draw “occurred against the background that relations between the Australian and New Zealand rugby tables have sunk to a record low after months of public bickering, so emotions are on the rise.”
They felt the kiwis were fired up by the Australian reaction to the first test which included the great David Campese of the Wallabies claiming that the All Blacks had lost their aura.
They pointed to the “abuse” that Australian teams had previously encountered at Eden Park.
Issac Luke of New Zealand kicks bottles that the crowd throws onto the field during the rugby league Four Nations tournament against Australia at Eden Park in 2010.
“The Wallaby Players and Team Staff [were] dumped with a bottle of water and teased by rabid New Zealand supporters as recently as last year. And that was after the All Blacks won 36-0 and the crowd was supposedly happy! “
The article said New Zealand police will provide the Australians with escorts to and from their Auckland hotel to the stadium, which is standard practice, and states that “the players are already preparing for a nasty backlash on the field.”
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Australian cricketers ask umpires to call on the crowd to stop throwing plastic bottles onto the field at the one-day international at Eden Park in 2005.
There was more sense in the news.com article with former Wallabies center and current Rugby Australia board member Daniel Herbert trying to downplay the All Blacks ‘mystique’ at Eden Park has become your strength.
He pointed to the recent struggles of the Blues and Auckland teams on their own turf and felt it should be no different.
“There are certain terrains around the world where the hometown advantage seems to work, but it didn’t work for many years for Auckland as a province,” Herbert said.
“The All Blacks just tend to do well there, and moreover, they do well against us.
“If you ask (then Wallabies captain) Andrew Slack what his guys did in 1986, I don’t think there is anything different than what they did in that game to many others. They just got it right on the day.
“Our guys now have to get it right on the day.”
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All Blacks assistant John Plumtree says there is no rush to find new combinations for the second Bledisloe test.
Herbert never won in Auckland with the Wallabies, but claims he was never scared by the ground.
“There is nothing different that I have found there compared to anywhere else,” he said.
“In Wellington, you have to deal with the wind, which can be a real factor, but in Auckland it’s like everywhere else.
“It doesn’t have any of those unique factors that are sometimes found.”
Herbert said it was simply a matter of the Wallabies approaching this test “fearlessly”, just as they did in Wellington.
