A Tri Nations title decider between Australia and New Zealand is enough to whet the appetite, but throw a finely-balanced battle for the Bledisloe Cup into the mix and it’s no surprise that this weekend’s encounter at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane is a sell-out.

The rich history and tradition of the Bledisloe Cup has provided an extra edge to many a Tri Nations battle between the two nations over the last 13 years, and resulted in some memorable matches.

None more so than the two matches in 2000, the first of which swung one way then the other before Jonah Lomu’s last try sealed a 39-35 victory in front of a world record crowd; the second decided deep in injury-time by John Eales unerring penalty for a 24-23 Wallaby win in Wellington.

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Both matches still live firm in the memory of the former Wallaby captain, as Total Rugby found out this week when they asked the double World Cup winner to lift the lid on the mystique of the Bledisloe Cup.

“From an Australian point of view, and the general Australian rugby supporter's point of view, the Bledisloe Cup games are the biggest games in any given year,” explained Eales. “When it actually doubles as a match that you can win the Tri Nations as well, then that makes it even bigger.”

Eales’ match-winner at the Westpac Stadium enabled Australia to go to South Africa with their hopes of a first ever Tri Nations crown still intact, a title they duly claimed and then retained the following year before the second row hung up his boots.

A record etched in the memory 

However, while Eales can still recall the exact world record crowd figure that packed into Stadium Australia to witness that 39-35 loss to the All Blacks - 109,874 for the record – his first Bledisloe Cup experience came as a young boy.

“The first game I played in was 1991, but the first game of rugby I ever remember the Wallabies playing was 1978 and I will never forget it because I was at home, I watched in on the ABC and the Wallabies won,” Eales recalled. “It was the day the Wallabies scored five tries against the All Blacks and Greg Cornelsen scored four of those five tries.

“I walked outside and met my neighbour, he said 'did you watch the Test against the All Blacks?' I said 'yeah, we flogged them easy, it was just New Zealand' and he pulled me aside and said 'you don’t realise what you’ve just seen, because what you have just seen has never happened before in the history of Australia-New Zealand Test matches'.

“'When it comes to rugby there is no team better than the All Blacks', he said 'what you have seen is something very, very rare'. I didn’t really appreciate it, it sort of shocked me then, but I certainly grew to appreciate it a lot more over the years.”

Eales: Wallabies will be hurting

Australia have only had their hands on the Bledisloe Cup once since Eales retired, when they held onto it in 2002 after a tied series, and if they are to lift it again this year then victory is a must against the All Blacks on Saturday.

Eales remains convinced Australia can produce a match-winning performance, despite the heavy 53-8 loss the Wallabies suffered in their last Tri Nations encounter with South Africa two weeks ago in Durban – a result which saw them slip back to third in the IRB World Rankings.

“It happens very, very rarely. When Australia lose they tend to go down fighting and it is pretty close, almost with a chance towards the end even, but there was no question about that by half time that game. Look they will be hurting, they will have been embarrassed by the score line.

“You have seen a number of the players comment on it, the embarrassment, letting themselves down, letting fans down, those sort of comments coming out of their mouth and when players feel that they can respond with a great performance and I think there is no question that the All Blacks will bring out the best in the Wallabies.

“Playing them in Australia, I don’t think anyone has ever been able to spell out properly home ground advantage, but it is there and when we play in Australia we play better than we what we do when we play in New Zealand.

“The last Test in Australia against the All Blacks we were outstanding, we had a great win in Sydney and the guys have the capability of replicating that performance. They do have a few people in the opposition who will be looking to stop that, notably Richie McCaw who wasn’t playing that particular match.”

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A third win in a row for Australia on soil over the All Blacks has the potential to lift them back to second in the IRB World Rankings, although only if they were to win by more than 15 points. A smaller margin of victory would bring Australia to within a tenth of South Africa above them.

New Zealand would remain the number one side even with a heavy loss like the 34-19 defeat in Sydney back in July, their 4.69 rating point cushion over the Wallabies evaporating away to potentially less than a third of that margin.

However were New Zealand to repeat their last win on Australian soil – ironically 13-9 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane in July 2006 – they would increase their advantage at the top by around a point, depending on the margin of victory. Australia would remain third with defeat, albeit a little closer to Argentina and England below them.

European Nations Cup 

The Tri Nations title decider, though, is not the only international this weekend which could have an impact on the IRB World Rankings with Slovenia welcoming Hungary to Ljubljana for the opening Division 3B match of the European Nations Cup 2010.

Slovenia, promoted after winning Division 3C, are the higher ranked of the two at 68th but it was Hungary who edged their last meeting 15-12 in Ljubljana three years ago and a repeat of that outcome could see the visitors climb six places to 66th and Slovenia fall five to 73rd.

A Hungarian victory by more than 15 points and they could shoot up to 61st with Slovenia falling even further to 75th. By contrast a Slovenia victory on home soil could see them climb between two and four places, resulting in one or two place fall for Hungary.

One nation who would benefit from a Slovenia victory are Serbia, who lie one place beneath Hungary at 73rd. Serbia are in action themselves in Division 3B against Armenia, but this match won’t impact the rankings as their visitors are not yet a full Member Union of the International Rugby Board and therefore are not ranked.

The IRB World Rankings update every Monday at 12:00 UK time.

Listen to John Eales on Total Rugby, on this website from 18:00 UK time on Thursday