A new Wallabies side arrives in Auckland and, with the renewed optimism of a blank scoreboard, bounces into Eden Park for a match-eve training session.
asserted
side → arrive → session
The captain will be asked about why Australia struggle to win at Eden Park.
asserted
Australia → ask → Park
It’s just a footy field, the Wallabies skipper will reason.
asserted
skipper → ’ → ?
Even now-All Blacks coach Dave Rennie rolled the line out in 2020, when he was rocking in a gold tracksuit.
asserted
he → roll → tracksuit
“But as soon as you start saying to yourself, ‘it’s another footy field’, it’s got you,” says retired All Blacks great John Kirwan.
asserted
Kirwan → start → you
“Because it’s not.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
While the Auckland venue has an exemption to be used as a phonebox-sized international cricket ground, it sits perfectly inside World Rugby regulations at 100 metres long and 70 metres wide.
asserted
it → have → regulations
But the All Blacks have - somehow - turned Eden Park into something far more imposing.
asserted
Blacks → turn → something
That same grass rectangle is a pyschological fortress, inside which the New Zealand rugby team refuse to lose.
asserted
team → refuse → which
The All Blacks haven’t been beaten at Eden Park since 1994 - a run stretching to 53 Tests.
asserted
Blacks → beat → Tests
The winning streak lasts longer, back to 1986, when the Wallabies last downed the Kiwis 22-9.
asserted
Wallabies → last → Kiwis
Some of those Wallabies are in their 70s, including captain Andrew Slack, who marks the passing of another year in life when journalists start ringing about the hoodoo.
asserted
journalists → include → hoodoo
With incredible grace, Slack always calls back.
asserted
Slack → call → grace
Since that win in 1986, 156 Wallabies players have tried and failed to get the job done against the All Blacks at the Auckland venue.
asserted
job → try → venue
The All Blacks’ unbeaten run at Eden Park - which dates to France’s 23-20 win in 1994 - sits among the most incredible unbeaten streaks at home in the history of world sport (there were two draws in the 53-match run, against South Africa in 1994 and the Lions in 2017).
asserted
which → date → 2017
The All Blacks have lost at other home venues, of course, but never at Eden Park; including winning the Rugby World Cup final in 2011.
asserted
Blacks → lose → 2011
The world record belongs to Serbian football team Red Star Belgrade, who were unbeaten at home in league games for an incredible 159 matches, between 2017 and 2025.
asserted
who → belong → 2017
They broke the previous record of 122 held by Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu between 1957 and 1965.
asserted
They → break → 1957
Chelsea hold the English Premier League record of 84 games between 2004 to 2008.
asserted
Chelsea → hold → 2008
In Australian sport, the NRL record is held by Penrith (21 wins between 2019 and 2022), and the AFL record is 29 games by Geelong, between 2008 and 2011.
asserted
record → hold → 2008
As far as duration, the Kangaroos were unbeaten in league Tests at Suncorp/Lang Park for 24 years between 1990 and 2014, but it covered 12 Tests.
asserted
it → cover → Tests
So why can’t anyone beat the All Blacks at Eden Park?
asserted
anyone → beat → Park
The ground has been redeveloped several times in the past 40 years, meaning any secret home knowledge of wind, camber or other Eden Park agrostology would be mostly redundant.
“For me, it’s just that it is home, and you don’t lose at home,” Kirwan says.
asserted
Kirwan → redevelop → home
“You could say that right across sport, you go to Brookvale, that’s Manly’s home and it’s always harder to win there.
uncertain
it → say → Brookvale
You play Queenslanders home, it’s hard.
asserted
it → play → Queenslanders
“I used to sit in my same seat, so I felt comfortable, I knew the park, I knew the wind, I knew the crowd, I knew everything about it.
asserted
I → use → it
“With the All Blacks, because they travel all the time now, playing there is coming home.
asserted
playing → travel → Blacks
It’s become a really strong record, and with each year that passes, that’s where it gets interesting.
asserted
it → become → year
The record passed to the next players, and they’re probably more anxious about losing at Eden Park than they are winning the Bledisloe.
asserted
they → pass → Bledisloe
“It’s become its own legacy.”
asserted
It → become → ?
One of the greatest All Black wingers in history, Kirwan won countless games at Eden Park, including the inaugural Rugby World Cup final in 1987.
asserted
Kirwan → win → 1987
But sitting just underneath that high point in Kirwan’s memory bank is having been in the last All Black team to lose there, to Les Bleus in 1994.
asserted
sitting → sit → 1994
He was also in the last All Blacks team to lose to the Wallabies in 1986.
asserted
He → lose → 1986
“And that was my last year as an All Black,” Kirwan says, referencing his code switch to the Warriors in 1995.
asserted
Kirwan → say → 1995
“At the time, you don’t think about those things, but yeah, now you do.”
asserted
you → think → things
It’s a “spiritual home” but the magic of Eden Park has no discernible origin.
asserted
magic → ’ → origin
The venue is on the border of the well-heeled suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland, three kilometres to the southwest of Auckland’s CBD.
asserted
venue → heel → CBD
Known as Ngā Ana Wai, the area was a wetland and a foodbowl area for local Maori people for hundreds of years.
asserted
area → know → years
In 1903, a cricketer called Harry Ryan decided to build a rock-strewed cricket field on the site.
asserted
cricketer → call → site
“It was called “Ryan’s Folly” because people couldn’t believe you’d build a cricket ground in a swamp,” Eden Park historian Graham Walton says.
asserted
Walton → call → swamp
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
