Wallabies legend Owen Finegan has encouraged Australia to lean into some old school “hatred” and “venom” towards the All Blacks after they were stood up for the third Bledisloe Cup Test in Perth.
The trans-Tasman foes will finally square off on Sunday at Optus Stadium after COVID-19 complications meant previous dates of August 21 and then August 28 were pushed back.
Rugby Australia and Wallabies coach Dave Rennie were angry that New Zealand didn’t fulfil the August 28 commitment after they had fronted for back-to-back Tests at their Eden Park graveyard.
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“Hopefully they get a bit of that back to the wall and a bit of hatred for the All Blacks for leaving them over there in Perth for an extra couple of weeks,” Finegan said on Stan Sport’s Rugby Heaven.
“Because they’ve made a lot of sacrifices and it does get hard so hopefully a bit of that venom will come out on Sunday… disappointing that the game was cancelled for the Perth people but it’s back on, we’ve got a date.”
With the Bledisloe out of reach for another year, the Wallabies have an opportunity to ignite their Rugby Championship trophy hunt against an All Blacks side missing three of their most important players.
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Stand-in captain Sam Whitelock and halves Aaron Smith and Richie Mo’unga have all remained in New Zealand to attend the birth of their children while Wallabies Hunter Paisami and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto are out for the same reason.
“There’s a real challenge, a record score last time (57-22) so the Australians really need to bounce back and find some of that consistency leading into Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa, week in, week out,” Finegan said.
“It’s a great month for rugby, some of those off the field things are a challenge.”
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With Mo’unga out, two-time world player of the year Beauden Barrett is set to start at No.10 for the All Blacks.
Barrett said the trans-Tasman off-field spat was not in his team’s thoughts.
“They may well use it as motivation, but we are not buying into that as players. We have our own drivers, and focuses leading into this weekend,” Barrett said.
“So if they want to lean on that, that is completely up to them.
“We understand it is going to be a physical, brutal game. As these Test matches against Australia are. So we’ll be expecting that…
“Certainly, we are aware of these games (so-called dead rubbers) and the number of times we have failed to have a clean sweep after a successful Bledisloe Cup.
“But we are here competing in the Rugby Championship and we want to build into that.”