All Blacks focus on a big finish in the Bledisloe Cup against Australia

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Wallabies need to avoid a bad start to have any chance of ending a long losing streak against New Zealand. The All Blacks must overcome a run of poor finishes if they're to win the second Bledisloe Cup test on Saturday, the last test for both teams before they tour Britain and Europe in the Autumn.

New Zealand also has to overcome a hometown disadvantage. The All Blacks haven’t won a test in Wellington since 2018 and four of their last five home losses have been at the New Zealand capital’s eponymous stadium, the “Cake Tin.”

“It’s a record that we’re not proud of,” All Blacks coach Scott Robertson said. “The way you deal with records is by performances and that’s been our main focus this week — a good performance and something the crowd and New Zealand can be proud of.”

At the same time, the All Blacks need to quiet increasing public chatter about first-season coach Robertson, who has a record of five wins from eight matches ahead of the national team's last home game for 2024. The All Blacks haven't lost to Australia since 2020, and haven't lost to the Wallabies at home since 2001.

Leading rugby figures in New Zealand have begun to question Robertson’s appointment as he came to the job with no previous international coaching experience. Predecessors Graham Henry and Steve Hansen both coached Wales before taking on the All Blacks job and Ian Foster, who was replaced by Robertson after the 2023 World Cup, was Hansen’s assistant for many years.

Robertson’s inconsistent selections and his failure to develop settled combinations increasingly are being questioned by former All Blacks and others.

After selecting Damian McKenzie at flyhalf in all tests this season, Robertson has chosen Beauden Barrett to play in the No. 10 jersey on Saturday. It will be Barrett’s first test start at flyhalf in almost two years.

“We always planned on giving Beauden a go,” Robertson said. McKenzie has " shown some great form but we’ve got to give guys opportunities and build depth in our team. I want to see Beauden Barrett. He’s a great conductor, he’ll get you around the field. It’s important that we have two world-class 10s.”

While he previously has played at fullback, Barrett also has lined up at first-receiver during matches and Robertson already has had a chance to study his form in that role.

In another surprising move, World Cup-winning New Zealand coach Wayne Smith has joined the All Blacks in Wellington this week. Smith holds an advisory role outside the All Blacks coaching group but his appearance in Wellington suggests a more hands-on role.

One of Robertson’s initial assistants, the former Blues coach Leon MacDonald, already has resigned this season over coaching differences. Smith’s sudden involvement may point to other concerns around the coaching group.

At the very least, Smith has to help the All Blacks cure the second-half fades they've developed this season. Since the second test against Argentina, when they led 35-3 at halftime but added only one try in the second half, the All Blacks haven’t scored in the last quarter of a test match.

Last weekend, the All Blacks led 28-7 in the first half, then only just held on to beat the Wallabies 31-28 and retain the Bledisloe Cup.

Smith provides mental skills coaching which may improve New Zealand’s finishing. The Wallabies will feel confident that if they can start better, they can match the All Blacks.

Robertson said Smith is “just observing."

“He’s been sending a few messages. He’s had the job a couple of times — he knows the enormity of the job.”

The Wallabies will take some confidence but no pleasure from the fact they almost pulled off a stunning comeback win last weekend.

“We’re done with the whole ‘almost’ thing. We ‘almost’ got there in the end,” lock Brandon Paenga-Amosa said.

“We want to change that. We want to finish the job, get it done.”

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

Australia's head coach Joe Schmidt watches his team warm up before playing New Zealand in their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia captain Harry Wilson, right, and New Zealand skipper Scott Barrett, left, pose with the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, ahead of their rugby union test match Saturday. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

New Zealand's Sevu Reece, left, is tackled by Australia's Noah Lolesio during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

New Zealand's Damian McKenzie, left, is tackled by Australia's Nick Frost during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

New Zealand's head coach Scott Robertson, right, chats with Australia's head coach Joe Schmidt after New Zealand won their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia's Noah Lolesio, center, looks make break against New Zealand during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia's Len Ikiau, left, races away from New Zealand's Ardie Savea during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia's Andrew Kellaway, left, is tackled by New Zealand's Wallace Sititi during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

New Zealand celebrate with the bLedisloe Cup after their win over Australia in rugby union test match in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military pressed ahead Saturday in a frantic search for a missing pilot after Iran shot down an American warplane, as Iran called on people to turn the pilot in, promising a reward.

The plane, identified by Iran as a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday, with one service member rescued and at least one missing. It was the first time the United States lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the war, now in its sixth week, and could mark a new turning point in the campaign.

The conflict, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, has rippled across the region. It has so far killed thousands, upended global markets, cut off key shipping routes, spiked fuel prices and shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes with attacks across the region. Missile and drone strikes continued Saturday with an apparent Iranian drone damaging the headquarters of the U.S. tech giant Oracle in Dubai.

The downing of the military planes came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast.” The U.S. and Israel had boasted recently that Iran's air defenses were decimated.

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes.

In an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, the military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.

A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued. But the Pentagon also notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member on the fighter jet was not known. A U.S. military search-and-rescue operation continued Saturday.

In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to discuss the search-and-rescue efforts but said what happened would not affect negotiations with Iran.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it went down was immediately known.

An anchor on a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to the police.

Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time the Iranian public was urged to look for a downed pilot.

Iranian state media said in a post on the social platform X its military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and a weapons system officer.

An apparent Iranian drone damaged the Dubai headquarters of the American tech giant Oracle on Saturday after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm.

The attack targeted the headquarters, which sits along Dubai’s main Sheikh Zayed Road highway. Footage obtained by The Associated Press from outside the United Arab Emirates showed damage to the building. A large hole could be seen in the building’s southwestern corner, with the “e” in “Oracle” on a neon sign damaged.

The sheikhdom’s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, said a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City," adding there were no injuries.

Oracle, based in Austin, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Guard has accused some of America’s largest tech companies of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations against the Islamic Republic and said they were legitimate targets.

Earlier Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in both the UAE and Bahrain.

World leaders, meanwhile, have struggled to end Iran’s stranglehold on the waterway, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to take up the matter Saturday.

Trump has vacillated on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it does not open the strait and telling other nations to “go get your own oil.” On Friday, he said in a post on social media: “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.”

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, over 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington contributed.

Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Iraqi women hold a portrait of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in the Shi'ite district of Kazimiyah in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A woman checks a destroyed house that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)