It’s time for New Zealand and Australian Rugby to get on the same statistical page.

According to New Zealand Rugby, tomorrow night’s encounter between the All Blacks and Wallabies is the 154th time the two teams have met in an international rugby test match. However according to the Australian Rugby Union, it’s the 178th time. The difference is the 24 games played between 1920 and 1928.

It is written that rugby, amongst many other things, stopped being played during the First World War in many parts of Australia. Rugby historians recount that as a result, Sydney was the main rugby city during the post war decade of the 1920’s and annual fixtures between New South Wales and New Zealand were organised to ensure the game remained relevant.

But herein lays the problem. Australia afforded these games full test match status, deeming New South Wales the official representative of the country. Test caps were credited to the players involved and the results, of which New Zealand won 18 and New South Wales 6, were added to Australia’s official test record. Not so New Zealand whose refer to the teams they fielded as “New Zealand XVs”.

A read through history books and notes of people who have a far greater knowledge, understanding and appreciation of these things than I, would suggest that several of the New Zealand teams were anything but a “fifteen”. The most compelling example of this is the New Zealand “XV” of 1924. A large portion of the players in that side would later that same year go on a tour to the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Canada, returning home early in 1925 having earned the moniker "The Invincibles”.

Now before I continue, there is a wrinkle.

Every piece of literature I was able to find on this subject, which clearly isn’t everything written on the subject, states that one of the games New Zealand played in 1926 was against a New South Wales 2nd XV and should never have been given test match status. But that is the exception.

So why raise this?

To that I ask you a question – what do you remember of the 150th clash between this two sides?

The answer is most likely “nothing” because the 150th test is dependent on which side of the Tasman Sea you live on. What should have been a celebration was just another test match.

While South Africa is our most storied rugby rival, Australia is our closest and most frequent. No two teams have played each other more in international rugby history than the All Blacks and Wallabies and by some considerable margin.

So what’s the solution?

I honestly don’t know.

I’m sure historians and statisticians are cringing at the thought of re-writing and re-calculating 87 years of All Blacks or Australian rugby. But hopefully, by raising the subject, it will get the right people thinking, but more so talking about this glaring difference and what can be done.

Personally, taking the caps away from the New South Wales players would be wrong, while getting New Zealand Rugby to retrospectively give the 24 games test match status and award caps to the player’s sounds easy in principle, but one suspects complex in execution.

Based on the current playing schedule (not including possible Rugby World Cup games) the All Blacks and Wallabies will play their 200th test against each other in 2023 … and again in 2031.

It would be nice if the powers-that-be could begin dialogue to work towards a solution, thus meaning both countries to celebrate the bicentennial test together rather than eight years apart, if at all.