Australia, New Zealand battle for bragging rights ahead of World Cup

MELBOURNE :With World Cup fever building on both sides of the Tasman Sea for the first time in 15 years, Australia and New Zealand will fight for bragging rights in a two-friendly series starting in Canberra on Friday.

Both nations confirmed their places early for the 2026 finals in North America and are relishing the time to prepare as other nations sweat through qualifying.

While Australia will be playing their sixth World Cup in succession, the All Whites will return to the global stage for the first time since South Africa in 2010 as huge beneficiaries of the expanded 48-team format.

With Oceania given a full berth for the first time, the 82nd-ranked All Whites were a shoo-in to claim it as the regional goliath.

But big wins over Pacific teams will count for little in the "Soccer Ashes", where New Zealand will find out how they measure up against the noisy neighbours they have not beaten since 2002.

"Australia's done very well, you know, they're ranked 24 in the world, which is amazing and great for them," All Whites coach Darren Bazeley told Reuters.

"But I don't think there's a big, big gulf between the two of us. Results don't show that because we haven't beaten them for 20-odd years.

"But when you look across the both squads, there's a lot of similarities in the level of players and where they're playing."

While the Soccer Ashes lack the profile of the long-standing cricket series between Australia and England, they share a century-long history and a similarly quirky trophy.

The footballing one is an elaborate wooden casket made from New Zealand honeysuckle and Australian maple, containing the ashes of cigars smoked by the teams' captains following one of the nations' first matches in Brisbane in 1923.

The ashes are