The All Blacks are in Perth preparing for their Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies on Sunday. They put time in the gym today and some of the footage from it was impressive.
Following a public spat between administrators from both countries, after New Zealand’s initial refusal to honour fixtures due to covid-19 regulations, the two sides will meet in Perth.
Beauden Barrett has said that they will not be using that as motivation, despite some thinking there is now genuine bad blood between the two parties.
“They (the Wallabies) may well use it as motivation, but we are not buying into that as players,’’ Barrett said.
“We have our own drivers, and focuses leading into this weekend.
“So if they want to lean on that, that is completely up to them. We understand it is going to be a physical, brutal game. As these test matches against Australia are. So will be expecting that.’’
He says that they’re looking for a 3-0 whitewash in the Bledisloe Cup, unlike last year when they won the first two but got beaten in the third fixture.
“Certainly, we are aware of these games and the number of times we have failed to have a clean sweep after a successful Bledisloe Cup,’’ Barrett said.
“But we are here competing in the Rugby Championship and we want to build into that. And that starts on Sunday.’’
The squad hit the gym in Perth and it was the big boys up front that got the attention, with Joe Moody, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Nepo Laulala and George Bower putting in some very impressive squat numbers.
Laulala actually got up to 220kg’s, which isn’t shown in this particular video.
After their third Bledisloe Cup Test, the All Blacks will face Argentina on 12 and 18 September before clashing with the Springboks in their much awaited 100th and 101st matches on 25 September and 2 October respectively.
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