It’s been mentioned before, too, where the night time games mean a wet and slippery ball from dew. Imagine Test rugby at 3 pm kick off, with the fitness and focus of the professional era. It would be disappointing if we never get to see it.

Speaking of kick offs, Huxley is still there.

Bear in mind also that their first two preferred centres (Toeava and Conrad Smith) were both out injured and they had to switch their third choice (Muliana) back to fullback when Leon Macdonald was injured on the eve of the test. This left Luke Mcalister at centre, a position he has played test rugby in only once before.

On top of that, four of their locks were out injured (including their number 1 and 3 in that position – Williams and Robinson).

Combine that with Gregan’s expert manipulation of the ref (he didn’t put the pull into the scrum until nearly the end of the first half) and the match-swinging yellow card for Hayman – and you had the ingredients for an upset.

Before you start accusing me of making excuses, Australia deserved the win. But you still need to win the return match in Auckland to get the Bledisloe back for the first time in five years.

The tryline and then the ingoal must have seemed like the promised land.

If there’s a pivotal, seminal, representative moment when Australian onfield rugby fortunes change, notwithstanding speedbumps along the way, that was it.

I had a dream last night that I was called up out of the blue to play for the struggling Wallabies against the mighty All Blacks at the MCG. They shoved me on the wing. Well into the second half, we were getting hammered. Suddenly, Bernie Larkham cut through and slipped the ball to Lote Tuqiri, who steamed downfield on an inside angle, planting an attacking platform deep in All Black territory. A couple of phases later, the ball came my side. Nathan Sharp threw me a pass about 15 metres out. In front, there were All Blacks everywhere. To my left, the sideline was less than a metre away. All around, 90,000 people were screaming their heads off. What happened still seems a blur, but I think it went like this, as unbelievable as I know that it will sound. First, I busted straight through a tackle by Rico Gear. Next, I pushed myself under a tackle by Richie McGraw. Then, I brushed aside a tackle by Chris Jack, as if he was a fly. Summoning both legs and holding onto that ball like it was dear life itself, I dived over the All Black line for five points, and set up the first Australian victory over New Zealand for five years. Then I woke up, and realised that my name is Adam Ashley-Cooper, and that I’m now a Wallaby Legend.

Smith was great, as was Ashley-Cooper, Huxley was actually really good except when kicking (and he did kick an overlap away once). He’s never been as nervy as Hewat in S&’s so hopefully he is going to get over it soon – maybe he can run half a game as 5/8th against RSA, because then he would be a perfect bench option for the RWC (along with Ashley-Cooper – how strong was that try?!?!)

Would have been great to have Latham, but then again they will be a completely different prospect in NZ – now I’m really salivating about that one.

Re SA I agree – we need to rehearse without Larkhama anyway.

So for the WC, Aust v NZ and RSW v Fra in the semis, and who knows we might get a 99 rematch. In any event the winner of NZ v Aust will win if they still have 15 players on the pitch!

Then, an hour in and it all changed. The Wallabies found purpose and rhythm, and the All Blacks were without each of those. Certainly wasn’t vintage All Black rugby, jaded, but also poorly led, which is unusual. And for McCaw to have been run through by Ashley-Cooper sums the last fifteen minutes up pretty well.

How good was that try.

The Wallabies did well, with perhaps the most exciting thing being there is just so much room for improvement. They’ll know that, be speaking it, and it will carry them well. It’s gearing up very nicely indeed.

One thing for sure, I’ll be keeping the pistachio nuts locked away from the final ten minutes next time.

Huxley has to step-up in a big way in this test. His defence was good against SA but his attack was pretty average. I really hope that the forwards can keep up the momentum that they had against SA. The scrum contest is going to be huge, but I think the most important thing will be how well the Wallabies clean out and use the ball near the breakdown. We had fantastic continuity of possesion the other week, we also had multi-dimensional attack off the break-down. I’d love to hear that they could pull that off against the All Black’s spoiling tactics at the breakdown!

But Wallabies are also teetering. Without the scrum being what it was in SA this game would be a worry. And can Dunning do it again? Mistake and field goal attempt free two games in a row? Somehow I think he’ll be better. But he’s the worry in the pack. If we hold the scrums, we push back some of that psychological advantage the All Blacks are filled with.

We have to be mistake free – that’s a big ask given recent form in the fundamentals.

And we must win our lineout ball or we suffer loss of any gains made elsewhere. To win one of theirs will set the crowd and the game alight.

Gregan cleared well last time around, rarely three-steeping backwards before doing so: we can’t go back to that. I fear that Gregan’s head fills with one need to many as captain, resulting in him taking those backward steps both out of the extra effort for focus on certainty of service and desire to seek options. Free of captaincy, as Farr-Jones says, Gregan plays the inspirational game and what we lose in leadership we gain in service – as an early call, to be tested this weekend. That said, his leadership will surely be monumental on the night. But we need a backline.

And something extra about the Melbourne crowd – it’ll be awesome. The Wallabies will feel it, and if the step made after teetering is towards the top, the Melbourne crowd will be part of it. Sadly, as we recall even when Australia was indomitable and backed by the most partisan and passionate of urgent Australian fans – hungry, electric – baying for All Black blood, the latter loved it all the more. The passionate crowd could, equally, work against us.

Let’s hope Huxley is targeted. One fine take under pressure, a cool placement into touch, and if he’s made of the right stuff he’ll grow a dozen Test matches in a minute. If he’s not up to it, we need to know.

You can feel the team firing up. It’s a great position to play from, and I’m backing the boys for a win.

The co-captain thing has been a complete farce, and I was relieved to see that the policy of auto-rotation has given way to the bleeding obvious need to have Smithy start every big test match. The team appears to be finally, slowly, coming together, but it’s not going to be complete until the selectors bite the bullet they are paid to bite, and name the captain.

Honestly, what was the deal with Phil Waugh as co-captain?