It’s a Black-out

SMH: “they [the Wallabies] simply cannot beat the All Blacks”. The All Blacks join England as World Cup favourites after winning both the Tri-Nations’ Trophy and and Bledisloe Cup, making it two out of three thus far in 03. John Mitchell’s side remained unbeaten in both competitions, and racked up two record victories over South Africa (52-16) and Australia (50-21) in the process. The Bledisloe Cup win against Australia was the first since 1997 (a cup difficult to wrench off the holders under current two-game format because the winner needs to win both matches home and away) and caused “a quite untypical rapture” amidst the All Black ranks. Said captain, Reuben Thorne; “After a long wait we were desperate to get it back. It took everything we had.” The match was the centenary of All Black test rugby and also the 100th Bledisloe Cup match. For the record in the period 1903-2003, the AB’s have won 269 games, lost 87, and drawn 17 – one of the most consistently impressive histories in international sport.