All Blacks v Wallabies Eden Park Auckland 6th August 2011

I'm marking this date and match because for the rugby union tragic it's the latest significant contest in the ongoing fortunes of a developing Wallabies team vs the worlds best team who are hopeless at winning World Cups!! They only win the ones they host i.e. 1987

We have not beaten the All Blacks at Eden Park for years [1986?] and will need to if we are to win the World Cup in late October... doesn't mean it has to be this weekend, but it does need to happen this year.

What's going to happen on Saturday?

I have no idea...

I know we need a superlative performance from our forwards if our growing backline is to put in a mistake free display of what they are capable of doing...

What would be great is if our scrum held it's own, our lineout worked smoothly [spot on throws and no errors] and Pocock secured some 50-50 ball and exposed McCaw as the offside cheat he's so good at being. This would allow us not to do those stupid chip kicks, sideways runs etc...

If we could post some tries then we will see if the All Blacks can click or let the pressure get to them... if it rains a lot we're screwed, if we drop ball in our own half, we're screwed... etc etc

In one way I don't mind if we lose, as long as we step forward and do some fundamental things well... It'll likely be close or we'll get belted and wonder what our best combo is... I hope it's the former. The final question mark is whether being in hard training leaves us with weary legs like in 2007 but that would stifle our development and so is a risky approach...

Of course the more likely scenario is that the All Blacks go up a notch on last week, do enough to disrupt our ball at scrum, in the loose and at lineouts. The loose forwards will push up on any turn over ball and crowd the inside backs... if they get possession they'll run straight at Quade Cooper who won't then be hiding on the wing or at fullback... he will need to tackle...

From there it depends whether Carter dominates with the boot or the AB centres and wingers can get combos going... if they do it'll get ugly for us... can we run their forwards off their feet?

I note the All Blacks have unveiled their new 2011 jersey, with the slimfit version of a white collar [the look of their old style heavy jerseys in 1987... it's just missing the Steinlager advert...