New Zealand Rugby, having rejected the concept last year, is now on the verge of agreeing to an historic Anzac test that will see the All Blacks play the Wallabies in April 2027 and embark on a radically different World Cup preparation journey.
An agreement has not yet been signed, but the Herald has been told that it is now almost certain that the All Blacks will travel to Australia – possibly Perth – just a handful of weeks after Super Rugby kicks off next year, to play what will be the first in a three-test Bledisloe series.
The other two tests will form part of the Rugby Championship (in August/September), and the All Blacks will play Australia a fourth time next year as they have been drawn in the same World Cup pool and are due to meet on October 15 in Sydney.
NZR’s change of heart about playing a one-off test during Super Rugby has been driven by several factors, the most important of which has been the near total cleanout of executive and high-performance personnel in the past 12 months.
When Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh – he has been the concept’s chief architect and promoter – first campaigned for an Anzac test in late 2024, NZR had a different chief executive, a different All Blacks coach, a different head of high-performance, no chief commercial officer and, bar one person, a different board of directors.
In March 2025, former chief executive Mark Robinson told the Sydney Morning Herald: “When we have gone and spoken to various groups, be it the Super Rugby clubs, the players association and various partners, we don’t see it as viable, at this stage.”
NZR’s new executive team and board believe the Anzac concept is financially viable, while most significantly, All Blacks coach Dave Rennie is understood to be keen to play an April test as part of a plan to intensify World Cup preparations.
A test next April would give Rennie’s All Blacks additional time together, present the coaching and management group with a tricky but welcome preparation assignment of getting players ready so early in the season and in what will be a tight training window, and enable the team to spend time at one of the bases they will likely use at the World Cup.
Scheduling a test in April will also intensify the pressure on New Zealand’s best players to retain high levels of conditioning over the summer break at the end of 2026 and play well in the first half of Super Rugby if they want to earn selection.
And it seems that Rennie’s thinking is to put his All Blacks through a tougher, longer pre-World Cup schedule than his predecessors.
Rennie’s desire to intensify preparation isn’t so much a departure from his predecessors’ thinking, but an amplification of it, as in both 2019 and 2023 respective All Blacks coaches Sir Steve Hansen and Ian Foster pushed for more games, but due to time constraints and the difficulty in finding credible opposition, they both had to settle for just five pre-tournament fixtures.
Agreeing to an Anzac test is an effective way of creating a new window for an additional test, but it is also a means to generate close to $10 million of income through gate receipts and state government support.
One of the barriers the previous NZR regime saw with the Anzac test was that there was no financially viable way for New Zealand, with its significantly smaller stadiums and no government packages, to host a game.
The trade-off would be that NZR would have a fair share of revenue from an annual Anzac test, but that it would always be taking a high-performance risk of playing two of a three-test series away from home. But again, there has been a change on that front, as in August last year, NZR signed a new broadcast deal that gives it the right to play five additional tests that are not part of the agreement.
This means NZR could potentially opt to host an Anzac test in the coming years and play it at a neutral revenue with a capacity much larger than Eden Park’s 47,000, sell broadcast rights to it and potentially win foreign government support to take the game overseas.
One other significant change since the proposal was made in 2024, is the reduction in Super Rugby from 12 to 11 teams (and it may even be down to 10 next year if Moana Pasifika can’t find a new owner), which makes it easier to construct a draw that has the necessary hiatus for the Anzac test.
NZR’s board is scheduled to meet on May 14 and greenlight the Anzac test for 2027.