Bledisloe Cup 2023 LIVE updates: Wallabies, All Blacks square off ...

This is a horror start for the Wallabies as Tate McDermott was flattened by Scott Barrett just metres from his defensive line.

McDermott had no hope of holding the ball and it spilled into the in-goal where Shannon Frizell dived on the ball and locked in the try.

The All Blacks missed the conversion but lead 5-0 after five minutes.

It’s game time at the MCG after both anthems blasted around the stadium followed by an impeccable Haka from the All Blacks.

The All Blacks have kicked off and the game is now underway.

The Wallabies players are being introduced and both sides have left the field their final preparations before running out.

We will then have the usual welcomes and anthems before kick off.

Ian Foster, Head Coach of the All Blacks (C) talks with Ardie Savea (L).Credit: Getty Images

The two sides are warming up in the middle of the MCG like 46 fast bowlers preparing to steam in from either end while fans are gradually finishing dinner in the city or Richmond and heading into the game.

There are a lot of seats still to be filled but judging from our my own commute on the train, plenty of fans were heading away from the ground before 6pm and planning to return by game time.

Australian fans show their colours.Credit: Getty Images

All Blacks fans show their colours.Credit: Getty Images

Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete of the Wallabies arrives.Credit: Getty Images

Rugby Australia’s next head of high performance — a job currently being advertised — should be left in no doubt of one thing: never again can the Wallabies head into a Rugby World Cup with the choice at No.10 between a 35-year-old playing in Japan and a 22-year-old coming off his first good Super Rugby campaign.

That’s the context behind Carter Gordon’s selection against the All Blacks at the MCG: it shows expediency on Eddie Jones’ part more than an appetite for risk. In fact, it’s not even his riskiest selection in the 23, with Jordan Petaia’s selection at No.13 off no rugby presenting a greater target for the All Blacks than Gordon, who has been picked to shore up the No.10 channel that Jordie Barrett was going to target with Cooper in the role.

Quade Cooper and Carter Gordon in camp on the Gold Coast last month.Credit: Getty

Cooper has done remarkably well to even get himself back on the field for the Rugby Championship after suffering an Achilles injury, but it is an indictment on Australian rugby that a player who started at No.10 in the 2011 Rugby World Cup finds himself in the box seat to do so again a full 12 years later.

And should he or Gordon get injured, the Wallabies are going to have to go deeper into their playing stocks in a way that shows they are an outlier in modern Test rugby.

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The MCG is filling up slowly ahead of the opening Bledisloe Cup and it’s clear, and a relatively mild, winter’s night in Melbourne.

The surface is showing a bit of wear, particularly in the middle of ground. There might be some interesting times during scrums.

The MCG before the Wallabies and All Blacks match.Credit: Getty Images

Can the Wallabies do it? It’s genuinely hard to predict, given the unfamiliar venue and a team with lots of new faces and rookies dotted throughout.

The head says the All Blacks will be too strong, but the 80,000-strong crowd and the MCG factor may be favourable wrinkle for the Wallabies’ chances.

If New Zealand don’t settle early and start slowly - and scores are still tight after 30 minutes - the Wallabies will grow with confidence. And Eddie Jones has stacked his bench with experience to finish strongly.