It has been a long time between Bledisloe Cup drinks for Australia.
Not since 2002 have Wallabies supporters been able to celebrate the famous trophy being lifted by a Wallabies captain.
Michael Hooper has taken over the captaincy now from Stephen Moore, ahead of Saturday night's game at Sydney's Olympic Stadium.
But most of the attention has been on the return of Kurtley Beale to the Australian line-up.
If Australia is going to win the opener of the three-match series -- also part of the Rugby Championship -- it will depend heavily on Beale unlocking the All Blacks defensive line.
The fact Beale has not played for almost three months, since suffering a hamstring injury playing for the Wasps in the English Premiership, will not help.
But Beale, who will wear the number 12 jumper as Australia looks to end a five-match losing streak against the All Blacks, is optimistic about how he is feeling.
"I haven't been here for two years at ANZ Stadium. It's obviously the home of rugby for us as the Wallabies, and it's great to be back in the Wallaby environment. Training's been very tough, and, obviously, the body hasn't been playing for a bit, so training's been pretty ... good. But I feel pretty good for Saturday."
The New Zealand camp, meanwhile, has been affected in the lead-up by untimely revelations about last year's sex scandal involving halfback Aaron Smith.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen spent most of the pre-game press conference sidestepping questions about the revelations made by the Daily Mail Australia.
And Hansen did not sound happy about it.
"Obviously, the incident happened last year, we dealt with it, and we feel that we dealt with it decisively. There's nothing more that I can add to that, but, if there is any more that needs to be spoken about, it will come from the New Zealand Rugby Union, (chief executive) Steve Tew. So there's not much point in asking me any more questions about that, because I'll just keep telling you there's nothing more to add."
Elsewhere in sport this weekend, there is a huge AFL clash tonight when the Sydney Swans look to keep their finals hopes on track.
The Swans take on the ladder leaders, the Adelaide Crows, in what is sure to be a stern examination of their credentials.
In the National Rugby League, fourth-placed Cronulla will be desperate to hang onto that spot on the ladder when it faces eighth-placed North Queensland.
In a sign of how tight the competition is with just three rounds remaining, only two points separate the sides.
In the English Premier League, SBS has live coverage of Swansea's clash with Manchester United, which gets underway from 9pm AEST on Saturday.
And in golf, the European team for the Solheim Cup has been hit with the withdrawal of star player Suzann Pettersen of Norway.
She has been replaced by Scotland's Catriona Matthew.
German player Caroline Masson says, although the news is bad, Matthew is an able deputy.
"She's a huge part of our team. She's a very accomplished player and a great teammate. But so is Catriona. So I think we're lucky to have such a great alternate. Suzann is going to be there to support us. She's going to be the vice captain now. It's fun to just have somebody like her out there and feel her presence. And Catriona is just a super-solid player, I think exactly the player to come in kind of last-minute and play for the team."
The United States won the trophy two years ago in Germany.
