Australia vs New Zealand Prediction: Poor Australia have nothing to prove at home

This match between Australia and New Zealand will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne during the third and final round of the 2023 Rugby Championship tournament. After suffering defeat in both of their opening matches, Australia will be looking to avoid going winless throughout the entirety of their competition. In the interim, as New Zealand kept their cool once again and won over South Africa, extending their unbeaten streak to nine games, the visiting squad will be certain of running riot here once more. 

With a much wider on-field problem beginning to overtake the world's number eight-ranked Wallabies only six weeks out from the showpiece event in France, Australia's final standings in this year's Rugby Championship will be rendered almost meaningless in a Rugby World Cup (RWC) year. A loss in South Africa and a loss at home to Argentina in the opening two rounds of the competition dashed any hopes that the return of former legendary coach Eddie Jones would immediately improve the results of the Australian squad. This is the first time since the 2005 Tri-Nations that the Australians realistically face the prospect of finishing last in the standings without a single win to their name. Jones will be hoping that the sight of 80,000 supporters at the inspirational and historic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will drive a huge rise in on-field performance, although the possibility of this happening is slim due to the fact that some untested combinations will be competing against a well-oiled New Zealand team. The head coach has responded to the team's shocking loss to Argentina in the previous round by making seven changes to the starting XV. As a result of these changes, the team's co-captains, James Slipper and Michael Hooper, are now on the bench and will be watching the game from home, respectively.

Lan Foster, the coach of the All Blacks, has been in his position for three years now, and as a result, he is a lot more certain about who he will be rooting for to bring the World Cup back to New Zealand. One does not need to look any farther than the one alteration that he has made to his starting lineup for this week in order to have reason to believe that, as Dalton Papali'i has taken the place of captain Sam Cane, who is out with a neck strain. There has been some further churning on the bench, including the reinstatement of lock Sam Whitelock and the return of Anton Lienert-Brown, who had been suspended. Eddie Jones is well aware of the fact that his team has now finished three consecutive tests without allowing a first-half try to be scored against them. As a result of this, Jones has stated that he wants Australia to be the first opposition this year to apply pressure on the All Blacks right from the beginning. New Zealand's focus this time around should be on tightening up their defense, particularly in light of the fact that their most recent two away games against the Wallabies were won with scores of 39-37 and 38-21. After allowing 20 points or more in each of their four games on last year's European tour, as well as again to South Africa in the most recent round, New Zealand's defense has a lot of room for improvement. New Zealand holds a comfortable lead in the rankings going into this final phase of this year's Rugby Championship. They have nine points after two matches, giving them a four-point advantage over South Africa, which is now in second place.

As Australia has displayed a high level of class in their prior contests, we should expect them to put up another dominant showing here. In the meantime, this will be Australia's second consecutive encounter at home in this tournament, and given the result of their most recent contest, it is quite evident that we can undoubtedly anticipate a pure, classy, and improved performance from them this time. In light of this, and despite the fact that I do not fully discount the home team's chances in this match, I believe that the caliber of the New Zealand squad will prove to be the deciding factor. Nevertheless, despite the fact that it is anticipated that this will be a close match, I believe that taking a chance on Austria to cover the point spread of 18.5 is the best decision.