Adam Williams presents his prediction for the 2024 Rugby Championship match.
The New Zealand national team have lost even a theoretical chance of winning the tournament this year. However, they might still finish in last place. To avoid this, the All Blacks need to beat the Australians now.
Australia
Two weeks ago, Australia suffered a historically humiliating defeat to Argentina (27:67). They conceded a record 67 points, the most in their history, and only lost by a bigger margin to South Africa in 2008 (8:53). In the match against Argentina, the Australian side was actually leading at the half-hour mark (20:3), but the latter part of the second half was disastrously poor. If they lost to the fourth-best team in the tournament, what should we expect against the world's number one?
New Zealand
The All Blacks are undoubtedly stronger than the current Australian team, but they are slightly below South Africa. Therefore, two narrow defeats (27:31, 12:18) on the South African field are not surprising. Both times, New Zealand led, but poor discipline and send-offs led to a turnaround and defeat. This should not happen against Australia.
Australia vs New Zealand Prediction
The Australia national team have been unable to defeat New Zealand for seven matches. The last time a team from the All Blacks won was on 7 November 2020 (24:22). In these matches, the maximum point difference reached (+35). We can't even imagine Australia winning now. There will be no close defeat either.
