Now Wallabies plot All Black downfall
Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:43
The Wallabies celebrate after winning the Mandela Plate. (c) Gallo
With Graham Henry set to field some of his young stars, the Wallabies are optimistic of also causing an upset against the All Blacks when they meet in Sydney on Saturday.
The Wallabies, having upstaged the Springboks 41-39 in dramatic fashion in Bloemfontein at the weekend, have made no secret that they are determined to end their losing run against their trans-Tasman rivals.
Henry looks set to promote prop Owen Franks, scrumhalf Piri Weepu and flyhalf Aaron Cruden in the starting XV.
According reports fullback Israel Dagg and flank Victor Vito also look likely to get a start. Dagg on Monday trained on the left wing in place of Joe Rokocoko, while Vito was on the blindside of the All Blacks pack.
The team will be named on Thursday.
However, it is in the Wallaby camp where most of the noise is coming from.
Determination to keep the ball rolling with a win over the All Blacks, who they haven't beaten in their past nine clashes, in Sydney on Saturday.
There was emotion, and undoubtedly satisfaction, but no beer-spraying and the talk during the players' presentations kept returning to the next step.
Coach Robbie Deans spoke about Australia jumping to second on the IRB world rankings. Then he spoke about getting to No.1.
An emotional Stephen Moore, who scored a try along with fellow 50-gamer Drew Mitchell, told his teammates "you can't get enough of this feeling".
Players' player Ben McCalman, who had just completed his Test starting debut, immediately turned his speech towards the Tri-Nations series finale against the unbeaten All Blacks.
As veteran lock Nathan Sharpe put it: "Next week's our focus now, we'll enjoy our company tonight and we'll get on the plane and it's high time we put one on the All Blacks.''
The Wallabies know they weren't perfect in the 41-39 win, but they also know they showed more character than in last week's loss in Pretoria, where they also jumped out to an early lead.
In his quiet and unassuming way, captain Rocky Elsom thanked his players for their resolve, something he'd also been keen to mention at the post-match press conference.
"We couldn't have come under any more pressure than we did in that second half and that was the most pleasing thing out of the game, the way the guys stood up to that and responded to it," he said.
"We didn't make that many mistakes but we made them all at the same time and at crucial times in the game things didn't go our way.
"To the guys' credit they just kept fronting up and kept looking for it and kept at it ... without doubt that was the most pleasing thing."
The speeches over, the players and staff - as always, Kiwis included - linked arms and sang the national anthem.
Sources: Newstalk ZB and AAP