Bledisloe Cup: Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh excited for bumper crowd in Perth

The Wallabies’ blockbuster Bledisloe Cup clash — and potential Rugby Championship decider — at Optus Stadium is on course for a sell-out, with less than 1000 tickets left.

Australian rugby union’s renaissance is continuing on and off the field and as of Tuesday morning, there were just 900 tickets left for Australia’s potentially seismic match against the All Blacks on October 5.

Off the back of a sell-out in Sydney for Australia’s narrow loss to Argentina on the weekend, a sold-out crowd in Perth would mean the biggest ever year for Wallabies’ home attendance outside of 2003, when Australia hosted the World Cup.

Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh told The West Australian he was delighted to see the surge of support for the Wallabies, who sit top of the Rugby Championship table ahead of their final two matches against New Zealand.

“It’s great to see so many gold jerseys around everywhere at the moment in support of the national team. We saw that in Perth in particular, with the greatest crowd the Force have had by about 12,000 in that match against the British and Irish Lions,” he said.

“It’s a great venue for the Wallabies to play out there at Optus and to have support tha, we’re so close to a sell-out so far out from the game, just indicates the demand for rugby in Perth and in WA and the importance of international rugby when we put our Wallabies up against the All Blacks in such a big theater of sport.”

Australia lead the standings of the four nation-tournament by a single point and stunning comeback wins over South Africa and Argentina have raised hopes of silverware which seemed unlikely a few months ago.

To win their first Rugby Championship crown since 2015, the Wallabies would likely also need to beat New Zealand at Eden Park for the first time in almost 40 years.

In the event of a long-odds, drought-breaking victory over their greatest rivals in Auckland, it would mean a Wallabies win in Perth would not just put them on the brink of the Rugby Championship, but also seal their first Bledisloe Cup series win since 2001.

Australia have twice played Bledisloe Cup matches at Optus Stadium, including a 47-26 win in 2019 which set a venue record crowd of 61,241.

Having raked in enough cash from the recent British and Irish Lions tour to alleviate a $60m debt hanging over their head, Rugby Australia is now looking forward to a huge next four years, which includes hosting the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 and the women’s event in 2029.

“That re-connection with the rugby community and putting performances out on the field the public and the community are proud of is a really good way to set up the next few years,” Waugh said.

Optus Stadium will host the opening match of the 2027 Rugby World Cup and HBF Park hosted the past two iterations of the Australian stop on the World Rugby Sevens tour.

While Waugh was coy on whether local fans would be rewarded with a return of Sevens next February, he was complimentary of Perth as a host city.

“I love Perth as a city; you lean into big events, you celebrate what’s great about sport, and you enjoy yourselves when you do it,” he said.

“The way the community embraced the tournament, and it’s very much around the entertainment product, the Sevens; whilst it’s great rugby on the field, it’s also great to have the bands, dress-ups and all the festivities off the field — and Perth do it better than any.”