History of rugby union matches between Australia and New Zealand

The first clash in rugby union between Australia and New Zealand took place in a test match on 15 August 1903 in Sydney, New South Wales. On that occasion, New Zealand won by 22-3.

Since 1931, they have competed for the Bledisloe Cup, named after Lord Bledisloe, who donated the trophy.

Note: Summary below reflects test results by both teams, and does not reflect the XV results between 1914 and 1929.

Note: Date shown in brackets indicates when the record was or last set.

Starting in 2012 the Tri Nations competition was renamed The Rugby Championship, and now includes Argentina.

The professional era in rugby union began in 1995, marked by creation of the SANZAR group (a combination of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) which was formed with the purpose of selling TV rights for two new competitions, the domestic Super 12 competition and the Tri-Nations.

The first Tri-Nations was contested in 1996, with New Zealand winning all four of their Tests to take the trophy.

In 2000 in Sydney, a record crowd of 109,874 witnessed the "Greatest ever Rugby Match" when a Jonah Lomu try sealed an All Blacks win over the Wallabies 39-35. The All Blacks had led 24-nil after 11 minutes only to see the Wallabies draw level at 24-all by halftime. Only for Lomu to score for the All Blacks to seal a fantastic match. Just weeks after, the Bledisloe was retained by the Wallabies when John Eales kicked a goal from the sideline in the final moments of the match.

Another one of the most dramatic matches was played on 1 September 2001 at Stadium Australia, in what would be Wallaby great John Eales' last ever test. The Wallabies were hoping to send their skipper off in a grand style. A fairy tale ending was looking possible in the first half as the Wallabies took a 19-6 lead over the All Blacks. However, tries for Doug Howlett and Pita Alatini, along with Andrew Mehrtens kicking, saw the All Blacks back in front 26-22. Then, in the dying moments of the game No.8 Toutai Kefu scored the winning try for the Wallabies. Two years later in 2003 the Wallabies suffered one of their most humiliating losses, being defeated 21-50 by the All Blacks in Sydney.

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