If there is one way to undermine the All Blacks it is to bring up a certain tournament that for so long has led to doom and gloom in the Shaky Isles.
The Queensland TAB obliged yesterday, posting blanket advertisements in the local media calling on the locals to "Back the Wallabies to make September 13th a black night for the World Cup chokers".
The All Blacks haven't exactly choked at Tri Nations level, having won eight of the 12 titles, but there remain certain doubts about a team that can falter at the wrong moment. They were supposed to win the 2007 World Cup in a canter, and didn't. And they are supposed to win this year's Tri Nations as well, but Wallabies coach Robbie Deans understands the New Zealand psyche and may succeed in the mind games tonight.
However, the pressure has been placed squarely on the Wallabies as well, with Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill yesterday stressing that how they perform will play a defining role in either re-establishing rugby as a major football code, or leaving it among the also-rans.
"We're one game away from redemption," O'Neill said at Suncorp Stadium yesterday. "There has been no trophies of substance in our cabinet for a very long period of time.
"It's all right to say you're [No.] 3 or 4 in the world, but if you actually have nothing to show for it, so what! Robbie Deans hasn't worked miracles, but he has started an important directional change.
"You can now get very excited about the future, whereas a couple of years ago you wouldn't have been. Go back to 2005-06 and you wondered with Australian rugby, where was it going? And then in 2007 you get knocked out in the quarter-final of the World Cup.
"But now you feel there is a future. We now appear to be in the hunt again, and to lift the Tri Nations trophy on Saturday night, while having one hand on the Bledisloe in a season that has been inconsistent, would be a very distinct stake in the ground."
Without Australia's best second rower, Dan Vickerman, and dynamic inside-centre Berrick Barnes, a Tri Nations triumph will be difficult, but Deans was adamant the Wallabies would produce something special.
"I just want them to play to their potential," he said yesterday. "I don't think we've seen that yet. We've seen glimpses of it. But this is a one-off encounter, with everything at stake. So I think you will see more than a glimpse tomorrow night."
The Wallabies will have to be perfect in everything they do, because the All Blacks are so protective of certain trophies. And Deans knows how New Zealanders love to hoard.
"The All Blacks own both the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations Cup, and they've owned them for a long time," Deans said. "So they're not going to let them go easily. There's also a message in that: we haven't had them for a long time … [Australians would] like to see what it looks like, what it feels like."
An epic victory tonight would jolt their memories.
Wallabies: Adam Ashley-Cooper; Peter Hynes, Ryan Cross, Stirling Mortlock (captain), Lote Tuqiri; Matt Giteau, Sam Cordingley; Wycliff Palu, George Smith, Rocky Elsom, Nathan Sharpe, James Horwill, Al Baxter, Stephen Moore, Benn Robinson. Res: Adam Freier, Matt Dunning, Hugh McMeniman, Phil Waugh, Richard Brown, Brett Sheehan, Drew Mitchell.All Blacks: Mils Muliaina; Richard Kahui, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Sitiveni Sivivatu; Dan Carter, Jimmy Cowan; Rodney So'oialo, Richie McCaw (captain), Jerome Kaino, Ali Williams, Brad Thorn, Greg Somerville, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock. Res: Keven Mealamu, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Adam Thomson, Piri Weepu, Stephen Donald, Isaia Toeava.
