It's just after midday on a sunny Friday in Brisbane and two dozen or so players and staff involved in one of Australian rugby's most lauded wins are gathered for their annual boozy lunch.
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The Wallabies' victory over the All Blacks at Eden Park in 1986 is etched into rugby folklore, for no Australian team has managed to replicate the feat in 33 disheartening years, nor any side since France in 1994.
The yarns at these lunches do get embellished but they are important for reminiscing on an extraordinary day that comes up every year before the Wallabies attempt to conquer their Mount Everest, as they will do once again on Saturday in a bid to win the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 2002.
"It doesn't even seem 33 minutes, let alone 33 years," coach Alan Jones tells the Herald. "They were wonderful times. We worked very hard to determine what was going to happen on that day."
Tours to New Zealand are a little different these days. Michael Hooper's Wallabies side will be in enemy territory for less than three days, while his 1986 predecessor Andrew Slack's troops buckled up for a seven-week tour with "really rough" mid-week games scattered around Tests in Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland.
The players weren't professional, either, and their daily allowance was enough for "a few milkshakes and a meat pie".
Australia won the first Test 13-12 and were robbed by a refereeing decision in the second to go down by a point and send the series to a decider. History beckoned but the Wallabies were always confident they would triumph at fortress Eden Park.
Why? Fitness.
When the team arrived in Hamilton before the first match of the tour, Jones asked where the training paddock was.
It was night time, they told a grumpy Wallabies coach, but Jones didn't care. He wanted to make a statement.
"We ended up training that night with car lights lighting the field and Jonesy absolutely flogged us," says Simon Poidevin, the side's inspirational No.7.
"When we got to Eden Park we were so fit. As soon as the game started they ran the ball everywhere and tried to run us off our feet but we could have played for two days non-stop. Eventually New Zealand ran out of puff. It was a tremendous feeling."
After the two tries to zip result, in which Andrew Leeds and David Campese scored tries to go with four penalties and a conversion from No.10 Michael Lynagh, an exhausted Poidevin quipped in the sheds: "Life is now very liveable".
"You grew up with us being the inferior guys across the Tasman and big brother thinking you're no good," Poidevin says. "It's a pretty special group of players."
The Australians only trained once a day in the lead-up but for four or five hours at a time and had done their homework on a Kiwi side they fraternised little with.
"We didn't socialise with the All Blacks too much because it was too important," says Tom Lawton, the side's tenacious hooker. "It's pretty difficult to have a blue with someone or be violent if you like 'em.
"It was magnificent. You'd have your beers in the dressing sheds and then you'd go back to the hotel and we'd have happy hour antics that lifted team morale and then keep drinking."
There was, however, a minor drama when it came to alcohol in the aftermath of the victory.
"The All Blacks sponsor turned the grog off as soon as they lost," Jones explains. "I suggested that that probably wasn't the right thing to do if they didn't want unfavourable publicity. The grog was turned back on and we had a lovely, simple night celebrating. We came back to Australia and there was no ceremony or grand parade."
Captain Slack rates the 1986 triumph in Auckland a greater feat than winning the Grand Slam in 1984.
"We were just doing a job," says Slack. "If there is an Everest in rugby it's beating the All Blacks there. 22-9 looks easy enough but to have the last five minutes when we knew we had won it ... that was really good."
Jones, who has been highly critical of the Wallabies and Rugby Australia in recent years, is backing the men in gold to cause another upset after their 47-26 win in Perth.
"On this occasion the All Blacks will come up short," Jones says. "I think the odds against Australia are ridiculous ... they have a point to prove and they won't die wondering. Take the $5.50 tomorrow. I expect a tidy win."
- SMH/The Age
