The Wallabies have come up with a novel approach to busting their 32-year Eden Park hoodoo – stay the hell away from the Auckland mainland until match day.
Always thinking outside the square, coach Michael Cheika has the Wallabies booked into the Waiheke Island Resort in the week-long lead-up to their Bledisloe Cup return bout against the All Blacks on Saturday.
Cheika, who famously had his NSW Waratahs wielding golf drivers in the dressing room before “teeing off” on the Crusaders in the 2014 Super Rugby final, played down the change-up before flying out for New Zealand.
But he admitted smelling the seaside air and training in isolation on Waiheke Island, 21.5 kilometres and a 40-minute ferry ride from Auckland, would be refreshing for his charges after Saturday night’s dispiriting 38-13 loss to the All Blacks in Sydney.
“There’s no magic pill here – ‘I’ll do this or we’ll that’. I just thought we’d stay somewhere a bit different,” he said.
“It’s all about training well, preparing well in the mindset and also with our footy.
“I just thought there’s a footy field there, there’s a gym there. It’s something different for the lads.
“We can get into our work straight away and get the disappointment of yesterday out of the system, understand we’ve got to own what we need to own out of that game and get on with doing what we can do to get a win this week.”
What they need to do is do what no Wallabies line-up since Allan Jones’ class of 1986 has achieved: conquer the All Blacks at their Eden Park graveyard to prevent the Bledisloe Cup from remaining in New Zealand for a 16th straight year.
“The job’s the same. We’ve still got to win two games (to win the series),” a defiant Cheika said.
“There’s no more room for manoeuvre. We’ve got to bring everything on Saturday.”
The Wallabies will be without Israel Folau after the star fullback was ruled out with an ankle injury.