About the Bledisloe Cup

Bledisloe Cup

This famous and very large silver cup was first contested in 1931 when the then Governor-General of New Zealand, Lord Bledisloe, presented the Cup as a perpetual Rugby trophy and a token of good will between Australia and New Zealand.

Since then it has been variously contested as a single Test match or as a two or three Test series. With the establishment of the Tri Nations series in 1995, it became a fixed two match series played on a home and away basis.

The Wallabies regained the Bledisloe Cup in 1998 with a three nil series victory, and retained it again in 1999 with the series drawn one all. The 1999 Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney provided a world record Rugby crowd of 107,046 at ANZ Stadium (formally known as Stadium Australia).

Australia went on to retain the Bledisloe Cup for the next three years until 2003 when a very classy All Blacks team won back the Cup in convincing fashion and in 2004, they only needed one game against Australia to retain the Cup.

In 2005, New Zealand repeated their efforts from the year before with victory against the Wallabies in Sydney.

Whilst in 2006, it was expanded back to a three match series, as part of an expanded Tri Nations series, with the All Blacks sweeping the series 3-0 after victories in Christchruch, Brisbane and Auckland and keeping the Cup of their side of the Tasman for another year.

In 2007, the series was a two-match series due to the Rugby World Cup, with Australia winning the first match, New Zealand the second, and as the current holders of the Bledisloe Cup, they retained the trophy for another year.

Series Wins: New Zealand 38, Australia 12