2009 Tri-Nations Championship countdown . . .

This year's Tri-Nations tournament kicks off Saturday (wee hours of the morning up here) at Eden Park, where the upstart Australia Wallabies meet the defending champion hosts New Zealand All Blacks.

Bartman at The Silver Fern examines the history, and looks for portends:

Tri Nations train spotting


Tri Nations time, and it's been around for a while now, since 1996 in fact, so lets have a look at t a few of the fact and figures since its inception last century.
AS we all know, the All Blacks have been dominant over the 13 series so far. And we'll dwell on this fact for a while, as this season could be an aberration, and the trophy might get carried off to foreign shores... But we won't dwell on that too long, the foreign shores thing. Lets instead look at the 9 series wins from 13 starts for the All Blacks!!

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So what do all these facts and figures tell us leading into the 2009 series? Basically, Didly squat! It does tell us though that during the reign of King Henry the All Blacks have been pretty hard to beat at Tri Nations time, Australia are always the bridesmaids, the the Boers, it's all or nothing!!

Read the whole thing!