Can The Wallabies Finally Win A Bledisloe Cup Now That The GOAT Richie Mccaw Has Retired?

Saturday night's Bledisloe Cup blockbuster against the All-Blacks at Sydney's ANZ stadium will be the Wallabies best chance of winning a series since All-Black Richie Mccaw rose to prominence more than a decade ago.

Described by New Zealand Coach Steve Hansen as "the greatest All-Black of all-time," the hard-as-granite openside flanker and former All-Blacks captain hung his boots up shortly after last year's world cup win over Australia, paving the way for the Wallabies to win their first Bledisloe series in 13 years. Mccaw personally lifted the the Bledisloe Cup above his head a record ten-times as captain against Australia after making his debut in 2001.

It will take two men to fill his boots. The first is Sam Cane, the 24 year old,106 kilo farmer from the Waikato Chiefs, renowned for his impeccable tackle technique, and lightning speed and strength at the breakdown. Cane is an immovable brute very much in the mould of Mccaw. He spent the past few seasons rotating around the All-Black backrow triumvirate of Mccaw, Kieren Read and Jerome Kaino. Seeing the departure of the All-Black great coming, New Zealand's coaching adminstration did their best to create a carbon copy as his replacement. Sam Cane is it.

They also bring the added spice of blistering Wellington Hurricanes ball-runner, Ardie Savea (brother of All Blacks winger, Julian) to ANZ tomorrow. Where Mccaw managed to maintain the heavy contact and tireless disruption of opposition ball for 80 minutes, the All Blacks have experimented with using Cane in that role for the first 50 to 60 minutes, before closing out the game with an explosion of Savea attacking energy and ball-running brilliance.

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Anticpicating the backrow blitz, the Wallabies have gone with a similarily explosive trio. The move has come at the expense of height in the lineout with ball-running Ben Mcalman replacing Scott Fardy at blindside flanker, with support from David Pocock and Michael Hooper.

"I thin Ben has performed really well in the lineout. We have been working on a few things there. He has been showing his quality there," said Wallabies Coach, Michael Cheika, adding, "We know New Zealand are the best lineout defenders in the game. We are going to have to be on our maoney tacitcally in what we do there."

ANZ stadium has not been a happy hunting ground for the All Blacks, who have won just 47% of their games there - their worst record at any major ground in the world. The Wallabies will be bouyed by the return of veteran trio Adam Ashley Cooper, Matt Giteau and Will Genia who missed the humilating three-nil series whitewash against England in June. At a combined total of 1148 test caps the Australian lineup have a rare ascendancy over the All Blacks, who contain just 954 caps. Not that it seemed to matter in their last start three-nil demolition of Wales in June.

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