Wallabies, All Blacks Resume Rivalry After Pandemic Halt in Bledisloe Cup Clash

The Wallabies and All Blacks were about to step onto a rugby field together for the first time in nearly two years. It was October 2020, and the Wellington stadium would hold 30,000 spectators—a number that felt almost surreal to players who had spent months watching Super Rugby matches in front of near-empty stands. The Bledisloe Cup Test represented something larger than sport: it was the world's first international rugby match since the coronavirus pandemic had shuttered the sport in March, when the Six Nations was suspended mid-tournament.

The two nations had last faced each other at the World Cup in Japan, before everything stopped. Now they were resuming, and the circumstances were fraught. Months of administrative conflict had poisoned the relationship between Australian and New Zealand rugby. The All Blacks' union had proposed cutting up to three Australian teams from a restructured Super Rugby competition. Then came a dispute over where to host the Rugby Championship. Australia won that argument, but New Zealand blamed their neighbors for a scheduling compromise that would have forced the All Blacks into quarantine over Christmas—a cost that was eventually shifted, reportedly at financial expense to New Zealand. By the time the teams arrived in Wellington, the two unions had reached what Australian rugby chief Hamish McLennan described as their "lowest ebb."

Michael Hooper, the Wallabies captain, was playing his 100th Test. He spoke of the moment with gratitude and relief. "It's a new era," he said. "We're lucky that we get to kick off international Tests again and what a way to do it with the Bledisloe." He noted the peculiar arithmetic of the pandemic: 30,000 fans represented 25,000 more than Australian teams had been permitted to draw all year. New Zealand, having controlled its outbreak, had no such restrictions.

The All Blacks captain, Sam Cane, had played under Dave Rennie years earlier when Rennie coached the Waikato Chiefs. Rennie was now Australia's new coach, making his Test debut on the sideline. He had replaced Ian Foster at the Chiefs in 2012 and immediately won back-to-back Super Rugby titles. Cane credited Rennie with identifying him as a young prospect; Cane made his All Blacks debut that same year and had since become captain. "They're very physical, it'll be fast, it'll test us physically and mentally," Cane said of the Wallabies under their new leadership. Rennie had named three uncapped players in his starting lineup and signaled a shift in philosophy—tactical kicking rather than the running game favored by his predecessor, Michael Cheika.

The Wallabies had spent two weeks in quarantine in Christchurch before flying to Wellington the day before the match. Hooper said the team was ready despite the unusual preparation. "Who'd have thought, at one point, any of us would be playing Test rugby this year. We're all pumped," he said. There was also the question of which haka the All Blacks would perform. Speculation had circulated that they might choose "Kapa o Pango," a more provocative version that ends with a gesture many interpret as a throat-slitting motion, though Maori cultural practitioners describe it as drawing the breath of life into the heart and lungs. The traditional "Ka Mate" haka was the safer choice, but in the context of months of tension, even the pre-match ritual had become a potential flashpoint.

When the anthems finished and the haka was done, the field would be left to settle the argument. Two teams that had not played each other since Japan, separated by a year of pandemic silence and months of administrative friction, would finally have the chance to compete. For both nations, it was a return to something that had seemed uncertain only months before.