Wednesday, 3 August 2011

New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen said the All Blacks were determined to maintain their dominance over Australia at Eden Park on Saturday

Australia has been bullish ahead of this weekend's Tri-Nations clash about the chances of its talented young team beating the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time in 11 years and at Auckland's Eden Park - venue for this year's World Cup final - for the first time since 1986.

Australian selector David Nucifora has said that because most of the current Wallabies are young and new to international rugby they are unaffected by history - the young Wallabies were more likely to be excited by the challenge of playing New Zealand than daunted.

"They don't worry about things like hoodoos," Nucifora said.

"The attitude they've got and the way they play the game in such a positive manner gives us confidence, because we know they will just get on with it."

Hansen says even if it's true the Wallabies no longer fear or respect his All Blacks, it won't make any difference to how the New Zealanders go about their preparations.

But he said they would not be motivated by any desire to teach the Wallabies respect.

"The Australians aren't in awe of us, they probably don't even respect us," he said.

"You've only got to read what they've got to say.

"We have our own motivation, we don't need someone else to motivate us. The black jersey motivates our players, it has for (decades) and will probably continue to, it's such an important jersey."

But that didn't diminish any emphasis New Zealand placed on defending its outstanding record at Eden Park, particularly as the World Cup approached

"Auckland's obviously the home here in New Zealand where most of the big games are played because of the size of the venue, so the importance of those matches are usually right up there, and wanting it to stay tight and a fortress for want of a better term is pretty important," said Hansen.

"That's where they're going to play the World Cup final and we want to be in it and of course we want to win it, so it's important."

New Zealand can retain the Bledisloe Cup, which it contests annually with Australia, with a win on Saturday and improve its chances of retaining the Tri-Nations title.

And just to be sure, Hansen said the historical significance of the Bledisloe Cup had been explained to the All Blacks players.

"We do it every year, there's some little talk just to remind each other what the history of the Bledisloe Cup's all about," he said.

"It's something that's pretty hard to win (back) when you lose it and we don't want to lose it, we want to keep hold of it, and this year's no different.

"It's got history, there's no doubt about that.

"This team's built on history, it's built on a legacy, and it's just like family - you talk about things that happened in the past and where you'd like to go in the future.

"That's all we do, too."

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