Aisle be Back: All Blacks v Australia #2 in Perth

• By Kevin McCarthy

I’ve only been to Perth once – and it coincided with New Zealand playing cricket there against Australia.

I think there were five people watching in the giant cavern of the WACA. Day one was a towelling – I’ll reveal the happy ending later.

So, Perth felt a bit otherworldly, and it still does. When there’s such a time difference, you realise just how big Australia is.

Nevertheless, on the outer edge of the greater southern land, the All Blacks are playing. But playing for what?

No prizes for knowing the Bledisloe is already safe. No prizes for suggesting the Rugby Championship, as that’s probably (but not definitively) tantalisingly out of reach after last round’s Blitz Bokke over Argentina.

Well, there’s always the chance to win another test over Australia and put a bit of a spanner in their self-belief.

But Id wager All Blacks fans would just like to see this side string together two wins in a row.

Just a little consistency, please, because people do want to believe, and a lot of this squad has been around the traps for quite a while.

So, a team with some major changes looks like the opposite of consistency.  I’d say you would better get comfortable with that.

After all, it will defy belief that the All Blacks can roll out a chosen 15 or 23 in most games. Injury alone will see to that, as will form slumps, or someone’s odometer clicking over one season too many.

Thus, the more the wider squad gets out there, the better. Peter Lakai for one has been you assume patiently waiting to reprise his debut off the bench against the French.

Otherwise, how are we ever going to know.

As to the happy ending in Perth, it was 1989. I left there to head to Sydney. In a time before mobile phones, and texts and the internet – and no cricinfo. So, I didn’t know what happened in the intervening day and a bit at all.

But checking in my hotel room, I could hear a TV tuned into the test, which I’d assumed had ended already. Instead, this Aussie let rip at the screen with an expletive and lament. Mark Greatbatch was at the crease, well into two days of batting and single-handedly saving the test.

So yeah, good things start in Perth sometimes.

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I kept expecting the Wellington Lions to fall out of contention for the last eight in the Bunnings NPC. Yet here they are, hanging on one-armed from a skyscraper, still theoretically able to make the top eight if a few things go their way.

The first being of course to win this weekend against the BoP Steamers with a bonus point.

That is going to be a tall order just for starters. Then Northland must lose to Waikato, with no bonus points.

Maybe a Lotto ticket is the better option.