Australia At the end of 2005, the
Wallabies looked to be in decline after having just ended an all-time record Test losing streak of seven. The streak led to the sacking of coach
Eddie Jones and his replacement by
John Connolly. The
2006 mid-year Tests saw improvement with two wins over
England and a win over
Ireland. Ireland's captain
Brian O'Driscoll – who played against both Australia and New Zealand in Ireland's mid-year Tests – was more impressed by the Wallabies, and tipped them as favourites over the All Blacks.
New Zealand Going into the competition, notwithstanding O'Driscoll's assessment, New Zealand were the clear favourites as the top-ranked team in the world, having lost just one Test in 2005 (their away fixture against
South Africa in the
Tri Nations) and gone undefeated through the 2006 mid-year Tests. However, All Blacks coach
Graham Henry used the mid-year Tests to experiment with his squad. They had to come back in the last 20 minutes to win their first Test against Ireland, and had to survive a last-minute push by
Argentina at
José Amalfitani Stadium in Buenos Aires. Despite these close victories amid much New Zealand complacency, the All Blacks possessed a strong, co-ordinated forward pack, quality playmakers, explosive backs and blistering pace out wide. Their most important asset was arguably their depth in all positions. Before the first test, the Australian television channel
Seven aired an advertisement in which the All Blacks performed the
Ka Mate haka with digitally inserted handbags, a reference to an incident where
Tana Umaga hit a Hurricane teammate over the head with a woman's handbag, breaking her cellular phone. This advertisement was seen by some as offensive to both Maori and the All Blacks. The All Blacks performed the new Kapa o Pango haka instead of the Ka Mate in Christchurch for the first time against Australia. Some observers found gestures used in this haka to be offensive.
South Africa Of the three teams in the competition, the Springboks entered with the most questions. The selection policy of coach
Jake White was controversial in 2005, with White choosing to primarily stay with veterans of South Africa's victorious
2004 Tri Nations squad. His choices eventually panned out, with the Boks only narrowly losing out to New Zealand in the 2005 Tri Nations. White largely stayed with his veterans in the 2006 mid-year Tests, which led to even more controversy among Boks supporters. In the meantime, several key Boks players were unavailable during the mid-year Tests due to injury, among them
André Pretorius and
Bakkies Botha. The Boks won two Tests over
Scotland, but suffered a huge blow in the second Test when 2004 World Player of the Year
Schalk Burger suffered a career-threatening neck injury. Recent articles indicated that Schalk Burger had a successful operation to his neck and he may play again next year. They went on to lose to
France at
Newlands, their first home loss since 2003. In that Test, they lost two key backs,
Jean de Villiers and
Bryan Habana, to rib injuries. De Villiers was initially expected to be out for the entire Tri Nations, though he returned for the final two matches, but Habana recovered in time for the series opener. As for other players, Pretorius would be out for at least the first two Boks matches, while Botha was out for the entire series. Partly due to the injuries, White named four newcomers to his Tri Nations squad. Also, he was heavily criticised for his refusal to select flanker
Luke Watson, arguably the country's form player, even after the loss of Burger. The criticism became more intense after the Boks' hammering in their Tri Nations opener. ==Fixtures and results==