The All Blacks have been attending history lessons this week focusing on the despair a Bledisloe Cup loss can provoke.
The big trophy has been present in the room — all the better to know what exactly is at stake — and various lowlights have been covered, including the defeat to the Wallabies in Wellington in 2000 when lock John Eales kicked the winning penalty after the fulltime siren to allow his side to retain it.
Current All Blacks skipper Scott Barrett, who met up with his Wallabies counterpart Harry Wilson at the Sydney Opera House today for a photo shoot to promote tomorrow's Test in the city, revealed his side's preparation had covered the lows as well as the highs.
"We've seen footage and we've heard from coaches within the group," Barrett said. "They remember where they were exactly when the likes of John Eales hit the penalty. Moments like that ... it certainly means a lot to us."
Scott Robertson will likely have been one of those coaches. He never won the Bledisloe Cup as a player, with Eales' late heroics in the Cake Tin cancelling out the All Blacks' remarkable victory over the Wallabies in what became known as the "Game of the Century" in the previous Test.
Looking back at that Test and lock Eales' difficult penalty attempt in the absence of regular kicker Stirling Mortlock, All Blacks first-five Andrew Mehrtens told Stuff years later: "We knew he could kick. You always hope he's going to stuff it completely and scrums and cleanouts throughout the game have had enough of an impact on the fatigue of his legs.
"It was a niggly sort of a penalty, on the 15m line. As a kicker you know people are expecting you to get it. It should be reasonably close to bread and butter, but it's far enough to the side to be in that grey area.
"You have no control over it and you sit there, fingers crossed. He hit it, you wouldn't say it flew beautifully but it was accurate enough. It doesn't matter how, it was how many."
The Wallabies won that Test by a solitary point but they lost the Bledisloe Cup two years later and haven't held it since. Such is the history of a trophy the All Blacks value second only to the World Cup.
When asked if the Cup had been in the team room this week, Barrett said: "Typically, we show the Cup and physically see what we're playing for. We have to earn it ... it's up for grabs. It's not ours, we have to go out there and take it.
"The boys trained really well yesterday, physically. I guess the next 24 hours is about turning the dial up mentally. The boys are focused, I can certainly feel it."
The All Blacks are expecting the Wallabies to play with width and intensity on what will be a hard and fast surface at Homebush.
The ball will likely be in play far more than it was during the All Blacks' two recent defeats in South Africa and that will likely suit the visitors.
However, Barrett, sent off in a record All Blacks loss to the Wallabies in Perth in 2019, hasn't always had it his own way in Australia.
"I've been on the receiving end of a couple of losses over here. When the running nines and the Australian forwards get downhill and over the gainline they're a tough team to stop. We certainly don't want to be losing that up-front battle."
After posing with the Cup with the Harbour Bridge in the background, Wallabies captain Wilson was asked whether the All Blacks were ripe for the picking after their defeats to the Boks.
"It is a good opportunity for us but in saying that they played some pretty good footy against a red-hot South Africa team over there," he said.
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