'Not giving them any more ammo': Wallabies duck bait on Bledisloe prospects

Between the Les Kiss revolution and the All Blacks‘ three-game losing streak, the 2026 edition of the Bledisloe Cup is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in recent memory, putting Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson in the rare position of having to diffuse questions over the All Blacks’ upper hand in the rivalry.

The Wallabies last lifted the Bledisloe Cup in 2002, when Wilson was just two years old, Toby Maguire became Spider-Man for the first time and camera phones just arrived on the market. The drought has been long, and the odds have long been short.

But with the All Blacks eager to bounce back from a significant loss to the world-champion Springboks, and the Wallabies eager to capitalise on an even more recent win over the same opponent, new life has been breathed into the annual series. To what extent that’s been felt in Wallabies camp, though, is hard to gauge, with Wilson keeping a tight lid on expectations.

Asked at his captain’s run media session at Eden Park on Friday whether the All Blacks are vulnerable, Wilson refused to take the bait.

“We’ve just got to worry about ourselves, mate. I’m not giving them any more ammo,” he responded.

“We just want to go out there and play some good footy; we’ve prepared well, we feel like we’re playing some good footy, and there’s a lot of confidence in this group. We’ve got an almighty Test here at Eden Park.”

Australia’s preparation for the recent win over South Africa was aided by four gruelling Tests against New Zealand in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, which has offered equally in-depth insight into the Kiwis’ new game plan under Dave Rennie.

However, while the sample size is the same, Wilson says the preparation week for the Springboks and preparation week for the All Blacks are two different beasts.

“The preparation’s been very different. With South Africa, we all know it’s a lot of set piece, high balls, and they didn’t play as much footy as New Zealand. Whereas we know there’s probably going to be a lot of long phases and the ball going side to side, and we’re preparing for that.

“We also understand it’s going to be a really tough set piece battle tomorrow night. But it’s obviously nice seeing a four-game series in South Africa; I think that helped our preparation for them, and now we’ve looked back at the series in a different light to see how it can help us against the All Blacks.

“South Africa have painted some really good pictures that, if we can do it well, it should really help us tomorrow night.”