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Aussie scrum can get even better

Australia were impressive in the scrums against England, who were dumped out of their home World Cup before the knock-out phase.

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"We have still got improvement in us," said Slipper who reinforced the Wallabies for the second half of the 33-13 victory at Twickenham on Saturday night.

After the celebrations, Australia waited for news on the fitness of wing Rob Horne and star fullback Israel Folau.

Horne was to have a scan Sunday on an arm injury that forced him to come off after just 11 minutes.

With the Wallabies already preparing for their key Pool A game against Wales next Saturday, conditioning coach Haydn Masters said there was no immediate news of Horne's condition.

Folau came off in the second half. Masters said: "Israel is fine, just going through the motions of recovery. He rolled his ankle. He should be fine. Everyone else is pretty sweet."

The Australian players surprised swimmers at a public pool in London on Sunday by turning up for a recovery swim.

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"We have still got improvement in us," said Slipper outside the pool. "Tomorrow we will sort out where we can improve and go from there.

"It is just a good time for us to knuckle down and not get carried away with what happened last night. Just try to improve."

The scrum had been the centre of pre-match talk and Australia dominated the set piece throughout the Twickenham clash.

"I have been around for a while now and every time you come to Twickenham it is always the Talk of the Town, the scrum," said the Reds captain.

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"In the past we haven't gone too well but last night it was pleasing to see that we did well.

"I think we can take a lot of confidence from that performance in the scrum.

"Having said that we have trained really, really hard and I think the squad mentality is really coming through."

Slipper added: "The set pieces are a very important part of the game. When you get it right, it really sets up the team to do well and I really think we did that last night.

"Moving forward that is going to be a key area for us in each game, to make sure we turn up set piece-wise and give our backs the best ball possible."

AFP

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