Rugby Championship
'Nothing's changed on back of one Super Rugby game'
ESPN Staff
August 5, 2014
Australia is still celebrating the Waratahs' first Super Rugby title © Getty Images
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Australian rugby is riding high in the glow of New South Wales Waratahs' maiden Super Rugby title, with fans wondering if 2014 might just be the year the Wallabies win back the Bledisloe Cup.

New Zealand have held the trophy since 2002, when they ended Australia's five-year reign as trans-Tasman champions, and they will not easily release their grip on the cup with the All Blacks, unbeaten in 2013, looking to extend their 17-game winning tear and set a benchmark in tier-one Test rugby. They currently share the record with South Africa and the 1965-1969 All Blacks, although it's worth noting that Cyprus have won their past 23 Tests at a somewhat lower level.

The Wallabies are on a seven-match winning run - their best in 14 years - and head coach Ewen McKenzie has spoken already of wanting to match, at least, the 10 successive Test victories recorded by three previous Wallabies teams.

NSW Waratahs 33-32 Crusaders (Australia only)
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Adam Ashley-Cooper said after New South Wales' emotional success at ANZ Stadium on Saturday, where the Wallabies and the All Blacks play the first Bledisloe Test of 2014 on August 16, that Australia could take confidence out of the Waratahs' drought-breaking win.

"We had a pretty successful year with the Wallabies post the Reds championship [in 2011] and I'd like to think we can do something similar with the Wallabies on the back of what the Waratahs have achieved this year," Ashley-Cooper said.

"I think across the board a lot of the Australian teams have done extremely well this year, it's probably been our best year to date from an Australian rugby perspective. And on the back of that, we're sitting pretty nicely. But with respect to the All Blacks, they are the best team in the world and we've got a huge challenge ahead of us."

And Matt Toomua said the win had generated palpable excitement within the Wallabies on the "Bush to Bledisloe" tour of Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst in rural New South Wales.

"It only helps having teams do well in Super Rugby," he told Fairfax Media on Monday. "Internationally, it's been a while since we've beaten the All Blacks. We want the Bledisloe and the championship as well, so we've got a lot to prove in that space. "You can get excited about having the Waratahs winning it and us making the semis, but there's still a lot of ground to make up."

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Kieran Read illustrated the amount of ground to be made up when he said at the Crusaders' post-match press conference on Saturday that Test rugby was "completely different" to Super Rugby, and that the Bledisloe Cup Tests would feature "two different teams".

But Andrew Mehrtens was more forthright in his opinion, the Crusaders and All Blacks legend who has helped the Waratahs this season with "some specialist kicking advice … maybe 10 sessions" saying "nothing" could be drawn from the Super Rugby final with regard to the Bledisloe Cup.

"If anything there will probably be even greater determination now from the All Blacks to smash these guys at their home," Mehrtens wrote in his column for Fairfax Media in New Zealand.

"The Waratahs will form the backbone of the Wallabies, and I'm not sure they can improve a lot either environment-wise or playing-wise. Whereas I think the opposite applies for the All Blacks.

"Any confidence the Wallabies take out of this result will be false confidence. It's a massive step up to Test rugby … though the Waratahs will still be buzzing, in the back of their minds they'll know they're facing a massive challenge.

"Nothing's changed on the back of one Super Rugby game."

Richie McCaw won't let go of the Bledisloe Cup without a fight © Getty Images
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