After moving the opening Bledisloe Cup match to a midweek slot in Melbourne to avoid clashes with the finals of rival codes, the Victorian capital will be a sporting ghost town on Saturday night.
But the decision has proved a success regardless, with the Wallabies’ first clash with the All Blacks at Marvel Stadium game on track to sell out.
Concerned about the potential impact of Melbourne teams playing AFL and NRL finals on the same night across town, Rugby Australia opted in April to move the opening trans-Tasman clash from a Saturday to a Thursday night.
But the MCG and AAMI Park will be empty on Saturday night given the feared clashes didn’t end up happening, and the Melbourne Storm finished fifth (and are now out), and the Sydney Swans will host Collingwood in Sydney in the AFL’s preliminary final on Saturday evening.
The Thursday night game is the first midweek Bledisloe Cup Test since 1994, when the Wallabies beat the All Blacks via George Gregan’s famous tackle.
That night was a sell-out at the Sydney Football Stadium but the schedule shift 28 years later was a big step into the unknown, with doubts about whether fans would respond positively to a Test match on a school night. And particularly with the Wallabies having been highly inconsistent this year.
Andrew Kellaway offloads to Tate McDermott in Auckland.Credit:Getty
Those doubts have been quashed however, after strong ticket sales. Rugby Australia are forecasting an attendance of over 50,000 for just the sixth time in Wallabies’ Tests at the venue, dating back to 2000.
Outside UFC, the top two attended events at Marvel were crowds of over 56,000 for the British and Irish Lions games in 2001 and 2013, and the last Bledisloe Cup game at the Docklands stadium drew 51, 409.
The Victorian crowd will have a large number of local heroes to cheer on, too, with Melbourne-raised trio Rob Leota, Rob Valetini and Pete Samu all currently in the team. There is a decent chance, too, they may end up as the starting loose forward trio given injuries and form.
Then-captain James Horwill and Sekope Kepu show what a Lions tour means in celebrating their win in the second Test in 2013.Credit:Getty
Rebels backs Andrew Kellaway and Reece Hodge will also have roles and on the wing, former Rebels and Storm winger Marika Koroibete will be playing in his 50th Test match.
“It will be quite special to go back home and play in front of our family and friends. But also just being in an AFL-dominated city, it’s pretty good to be able to take rugby down there and hopefully grow the game,” Samu said.
“We definitely feel we can help in growing the game down there. We always have a bit of banter with our clubs from back in Melbourne. That’s good. We feel it is good to have more games down there.”
Samu played AFL and rugby as a kid growing up in Moorabin and is a supporter of taking big games to Victoria.
“We are hoping there is a good turnout on Thursday night. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes in promoting the game down in Melbourne. I am sure it will be a good turnout.”
The All Blacks are already enjoying the relative anonymity of AFL-mad Melbourne, and many attended the Collingwood-Fremantle clash at the MCG. As per their contentious – and soon-to-be discontinued – practice this year, however, the Wallabies only arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday.
New Zealand perform the haka before smashing Argentina in Hamilton.Credit:Photosport
Koroibete said it would be special to play his 50th Test in Melbourne and joked he would “call Craig Bellamy” to muster up some support from the now-finished Storm.
In four Bledisloe Cup clashes in Melbourne, Australia and New Zealand have won two each. The Wallabies won twice at the MCG in the 1990s but lost the one clash at the Docklands venue.
Given their own spotty record this year, the Wallabies aren’t paying much heed to the All Blacks’ much-publicised struggles in 2022, in which they lost a series at home to Ireland, and to Argentina at home as well.
“We have spoken a lot about that this week. We have to be at our best to beat them,” Koroibete said.
“We have to bring our A game to be able to beat them. They are world class across the park. They have heap of variety there. They have the ability to pull things out of nowhere. You have to be on top of your defence to stop them dominating you on turnover ball, that’s a really dangerous area.”
