Currently, Australia is hosting the Tri-Nations Series, an international rugby tournament between Australia, Argentina and New Zealand!
This tournament is usually an international league called The Rugby Championship, in which the three countries mentioned above and South Africa compete against each other. However, this year South Africa gave up traveling to Australia due to the impact of the new coronavirus. The tournament will be held in three countries: Australia, Argentina, and New Zealand.
This tournament, which began in 1996, was called the Tri Nations, with New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa competing, until 2012, when Argentina joined. (The "Tri" in this case is a play on the two meanings of "Tri" which means three in English, and "Try" in rugby.) This year was the first time since 2011 that a tournament involving three countries took place, so it was named the 2020 Tri Nations Series, and kicked off on October 31st at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney.
Also won the Bledisloe Cup
The first match of the Tri-Nation Series between New Zealand and Australia was also the third match of the Bledisloe Cup, a match between New Zealand and Australia.
The All Blacks won the match 43-5.
In the Bledisloe Cup, the All Blacks won two and drew one of their four matches, and their victory was confirmed in this third match.
According to the New Zealand Rugby Union, the Bledisloe Cup began in 1932. Some sources say it began in 1931, while the Australian Rugby Union considers the first tournament to have been in 1931.
To date, New Zealand has played against Australia 48 times (49 times if we follow Australia's theory and count from 1931), and Australia 12 times. New Zealand has not lost the Bledisloe Cup to Australia since 2003.
A rare two-game losing streak and a historic defeat
The excitement of winning the Bledisloe Cup was fleeting, but New Zealand played Australia again in the second match of the Tri-Nation Series. Unfortunately, they lost to Australia. This match was a bit rough, with both the All Blacks and Australia having players sent off with red cards.
And in the third match of the Tri-Nation Series, against Argentina, the All Blacks suffered their first ever loss to Argentina!
Argentina beat the All Blacks for the first time in history, and some players were in tears. It was a historic day for Argentine rugby.
The subject of this match was Argentina's captain, Pablo Matera. He got into a bit of a fight early on in the match and was warned by the referee, but he insisted, "I can't tolerate anyone insulting my teammates. We're fighting for our country." This incident symbolized the unity of the Argentine team as a team representing their country.
3rd in the World Rugby Rankings
After this match, the All Blacks dropped from second to third in the World Rugby Rankings, behind South Africa, last year's Rugby World Cup winners, and England, who recently beat Georgia in an international match.
This third place is the lowest ranking for the All Blacks since they lost to England in the semi-finals of last year's Rugby World Cup, dropping to third place for just a week before beating Wales in the third-place playoff. Of course, the All Blacks' third place ranking is the lowest they've been since the ranking system began in 2003.
The All Blacks held the number one ranking for a record 507 weeks between 2009 and 2019.
The All Blacks are a rare team that loses consecutive games. The two consecutive losses to Australia and Argentina have caused disappointment in the country. The next and final Tri-Nations match is the second game against Argentina on November 28th. I hope they can somehow recover and win the final game.
