After nearly a decade at the top of Australian rugby, Allan Alaalatoa is no stranger to the highs and lows that come with wearing Wallaby gold.
As the side gears up to face the All Blacks at Eden Park, 83-cap Alaalatoa has been noticing the love from fans despite not getting on the field since sustaining a shoulder injury against the British & Irish Lions at the MCG.
Watch the Wallabies tackle the All Blacks live and on-demand via Stan Sport.
With the second Bledisloe test in Perth sold out over two weeks in advance, it comes with extra motivation for the side to stay on course and believe.
“I think it's been awesome, bro,” Alaalatoa told reporters in Auckland.
“‘The atmosphere's been great in every stadium that we've been to, and all the towns that we've been in.
“You see young kids and adults walking around in Wallaby jerseys, which I think has just been so good as a player to see that. [It] adds that little bit more motivation for you to want to go out and perform for your country.
“That it probably does come off the back of performances, but then performing consistently as well… like showing the fight back over the game in Johannesburg, the game against Argentina, the boys not wanting to give up.
“I think that's infectious for our country.
“The thing for us as players to control is the way that we're performing and continuing to believe in that because we know that the fans and our supporters believe in us as well.”
Across the 2025 season, head coach Joe Schmidt and the Wallabies’ squad have placed a key focus on “earning support” from fans, and it appears to be working across the wider team.
With Alaalatoa out over the last two months, the pressure has been on Taniela Tupou and Zane Nonggorr to manage Australia's tighthead side of the scrum.
While Alaalatoa will be hungry to get back out there after recovering from his shoulder injury, and he's expecting fierce competition with Tom Robertson also in contention.
“They've both been great,” Alaalatoa said on Tupou and Nonggorr.
“Zane's been awesome over the course of the last five games. He's someone that's performed well in that third test against the British and Irish Lions, and obviously the two test matches over in South Africa was a great experience for him.
“But man, from where he was this time last year, he's improved so much.
“That's probably the great thing about our team. Although there's unfortunate injuries in our team, it does open up opportunities for other blokes to step in.
“[On my shoulder], it’s going well. I've had a couple of back-to-back good weeks through doing live training, contact, set piece.
“I've ripped into that and that then gives me confidence to want to go out there and perform if given the opportunity. I've just got to take it one day at a time and expose it as much as I can.”
Victory at Eden Park would shake the very foundations of Australian rugby, however the side is expected a ruthless All Blacks response following their 43-10 loss to the Springboks.
The Wallabies also have their own issues to sort - including a tendency for slow starts - if they're to end a record 52-game streak at the Garden.
“For us there's plenty of growth,” Alaalatoa said.
“What we saw over the course of two weeks was lots of pride for the jersey and the fight back in both games. I think the point for us though is to not let teams get let up at the start, you know. It was definitely both performances.
“It was very proud to watch the fight that the boys had to come back and to win one and to give ourselves an opportunity to potentially win the next. But there's definitely some key learnings in there for us that we need to address this week.
“There's belief in our group when we're performing at our best and that belief comes from our preparation. There'll be some things that we're going to speak about throughout our review that we need to address throughout the whole week so we can make sure that we're in the best state on the weekend to go out there and perform the best we can.
“There's plenty of belief in the group in our own game, so we want to make sure that we do everything we can to put our own game in the opposition. We've got to create that belief throughout the whole week.”
