2012 Rugby Championship Game 1 Australia vs New Zealand - 18 August

2012 Rugby Championship

18 August 2012:
Australia vs New Zealand at ANZ Stadium, Sydney
South Africa vs Argentina - DHL Newlands, Cape Town
25 August 2012:
New Zealand vs Australia at Eden Park, Auckland
Argentina vs South Africa - Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
1 September 2012: Travel Bye
8 September 2012:
Australia vs South Africa at Patersons Stadium, Perth
New Zealand vs Argentina at Westpac Stadium in Wellington
15 September 2012:
Australia vs Argentina at Skilled Park, Gold Coast
New Zealand vs South Africa at Forsyth Barr in Dunedin
22 September 2012: Travel Bye
29 September 2012:
South Africa vs Australia - Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Argentina vs New Zealand - Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata
6 October 2012:
South Africa vs New Zealand - FNB Stadium, Johannesburg
Argentina vs Australia - Estadio Gigante de Arroyito, Rosario


The entrée has been consumed and the 2012 Super Rugby competition is now a distant memory. Similarly the June Tests are done and dusted, and we have shown that we can win tight matches against the finest from the Northern Hemisphere.

It is time to dust off the Green and Gold, mobolise The Troup, and get ready for the Homebush Gold Rush as Australia’s finest Men in Gold take on reigning RWC champions The Darkness from the Shaky Isles.

Cunning planning by the staff of the St Leonards Ivory Tower to orchestrate the early departure of the Australian franchises from the Super Rugby Final series, has given Dingo Deans a 3 week head start over the Darkness and Saffers to prepare the national squad for the inaugural SH 4 Nations tournament ingeniously called “The Rugby Championship”.

After several recent disappointments against the Darkness, this match is a must win for Dingo.

Can our Men in Gold turn back the black tide of The Darkness coming over the Tasman Sea?

They certainly will be going in to this series as the underdog, and that is when we are at our most dangerous. Our record in Sydney is impressive, and I am predicting that Gold will prevail by 2 points, with a try after the siren, in a very high points scoring match.

I'm going to be at this game. My first All Black Test outside of NZ..can't wait!!

I going to Bullrush, me and a few mates usually go to NZ for a game, decided as it back in Auckland this year would do Sydnet instead, waiting a week or two before any rash predictions though!!

Too many good players not being picked or injured.

A very, very average likely starting XV - Average both in terms of individual talent and combination wise.

Unfortunately, we need our best possible XV on the field to knock off the darkness.

My prediction? Well, in case you hadn't guessed. New Zealand. Comfortably.

Injuries, sure. Who are the "too many good players not being picked"?

Aside from Quade Cooper who has had limited rugby, hasn't played a test since the RWC (when his form was terrible) and is trying to force out Barnes who played well in our recent tests, I can't see any good players not being picked.

Possibly the Honey Badger but other than that??? What we do have is not very good players getting picked, rather than good players not being picked. I.e. Vuna

And it's tough to argue that Cummins is getting snubbed, IMO.

You could make a Vuna vs Shipperly case, I guess. But we're really talking about 3rd choice players at that point.

New Zealand to go in dry.

All Blacks by 25+

(Happy to be proven wrong, of course). I don't subscribe to the theory that good players are being left out as such - some are maybe a bit contentious, however that will always be the case. Wholesale changes to the team that beat Wales is pretty harsh.

I just don't think our players at the moment are performing to their peak levels. We will probably need the all blacks to have an off day and our guys to play a blinder in order to come close.

This is not going to be our year, I fear.

I'm heading north for this one, a birthday present to myself.

Pre-game meet up details for those who think we've already lost and it's going to be a piss up: http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/community/threads/four-nations-2012.10921/#post-394202

No Horwill, No McCabe, no Palu, No JOC. Beale is coming back from injury, Horne and Barnes had appalling SR seasons, TN still seems to have the odd dodgy throw in, Cooper is still rebuilding form after a poor RWC.

Gee theres a lot of reasons to be down. Anyone would think we hadn't just beaten the 6N grand slam champs. Were we polished? Hell no. Still managed to win though. And that in a country that rates union 3rd if not 4th.

25+! I'm not writing our boys off just yet. Have so many of us lost so much faith?

Yes I am sure his form from 10 months ago is still affecting him...

Rubbish comment. Sick of the pessimists, we are ranked in the top 3 for a reason.

I think ATH was making the same point as you in response to me being pessimistic actually.

Well let's face it. 95% of these things are either a somewhat comfortable victory for the AB's or a battle going either way.

I proudly call myself and out-and-out pessimist, I correctly predicted the RWC final to be within 4 points, so despite most people saying New Zealand will do it comfortable, I'm going for a ding-dong battle either way. NZ by 3. Australia scraped through against a quality Welsh side and I expect them to improve immensely in two weeks.




Or NZ will smash ya's. Who can tell the future lol.

Could NZ have used all their sporting liuck up at the olympics?

GO THE WALLABIES.

Not sure NZ has, but Australia certainly seems to have.

AB's by 5

I thought we used it all up at the Rugby World Cup. Must be a bit left over.

I was kind of hoping that Australia hasn't pissed its luck away in a swimming pool and was saving it for the Bledisloe.

Seems like Deans is going to start Timani, All Blacks by 90.

Well done Deans you don't even hide the sabotage anymore.

It's the first time for ages I've felt we have no chance. Probably since the E Jones era.