Battered Wallabies keen to bury demons

 

By , 31 Oct 2009 Darren Walton is a Roar Pro

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Australia's Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom, cenetr, along with his teammates take a short break during the team's practice session at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, a day before the Bledisloe Cup rugby match against New Zealand's All Blacks. AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama

Australia's Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom, cenetr, along with his teammates take a short break during the team's practice session at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, a day before the Bledisloe Cup rugby match against New Zealand's All Blacks. AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama

Maligned as a meaningless dead-rubber, Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup clash in Tokyo is anything but for the Wallabies as they strive desperately to stop the rot against their oldest and fiercest rugby rivals.

The Wallabies’ alarming losing streak against the All Blacks now stands at six matches, Australia’s worst run in more than a decade, and injured vice-captain Berrick Barnes admits the constant batterings are starting to scar.

“It is a long time (since we won a Bledisloe Test) and something we’d definitely like to end because obviously it becomes a mental sort of thing,” Barnes said.

Some would say it has already, with the Wallabies having squandered second-half leads in four successive trans-Tasman encounters before capitulating 33-6 last time out in Wellington six weeks ago.

“It’s a belief thing, of things coming together,” Barnes added.

“(In Wellington), we didn’t help ourselves going across field in the backs and we got hurt at scrum time so we never got the ball other than at tap-off against them.

“It’s about it coming together at set piece and then us not wasting the ball at the backs. I know it’s simply said, but that’s what it comes down to.

“(All Blacks five-eighth Dan) Carter kicked a lot better than what we did in our own half as well. I don’t think mentally … we know we can do it.

“If we’d scored with eight minutes to go, we’re right back in it, within a few points. To their credit, the All Black defence was pretty staunch at that point. It’s a fine line.”

A big “if”, though, with the Wallabies having scored just one measly try in their past three Tests against the All Blacks.

That’s because the Kiwis have also been so utterly dominant in the physical stakes, smashing the Wallabies all over the park and monstering them at the breakdown.

“A big part of it on Saturday is going to be our mindset, but we’ve gone for blokes – to generalise – who are possibly a little more confrontational,” Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said after replacing his entire back three plus veteran flanker George Smith with the more physically imposing quartet of Adam Ashley-Cooper, Peter Hynes, Digby Ioane and David Pocock.

“It gives us a bit more presence.”

All Blacks coach Graham Henry believes the tinkering will give the Wallabies “extra edge”, saying selection changes tended to re-energise teams .

Not that that has worked too often for Deans with the Wallabies.

In his ongoing search for solutions, Deans has chopped and changed to the point that he now has eight players in his 22-man squad chasing their first win over the All Blacks.

Fullback James O’Connor, winger Ioane, halfback Will Genia, flanker Pocock, lock Mark Chisholm, prop Ben Alexander, reserve back Quade Cooper and replacement forward Dean Mumm are all craving for some long overdue trans-Tasman bragging rights.

“On the motivation side of things, me and a lot of guys in the squad haven’t tasted success over New Zealand,” Alexander said.

“We’ve all grown up and seen the great matches over the early part of this decade and the late 90s and seen a lot of Wallabies success and lived it through the TV.

“But being able to experience it ourselves is something that a lot of us are striving for, because of that rivalry and history and tradition between Australia and New Zealand that is the Bledisloe Cup.”

Alexander says it’s folly to think the fixture carries less meaning because of its so-called “dead rubber” status and the fact it’s being contested in the “surreal” setting of Tokyo’s National Stadium.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s played here – in front of one or 100,000 people, or none – there’s still that motivating factor just to be able to get one up on New Zealand because they are our biggest rivals and one of the best sides in the world,” he said.

The passionate prop is adamant the All Blacks will be as tough as ever to crack as they look to sweep the Wallabies 4-0 for the first time in a trans-Tasman series since 1962.
“They’re a very proud side,” Alexander said.

“That’s probably from the decades and generations of great All Blacks before them and these guys are just trying to live up to the pressures they have as a country and a proud rugby team.

“They bring that pride and that respect they have for the jersey onto the field and they’re a very tough opposition any day you play them.

“They’ll always give their all and that’s what it is to be an All Black, as it is to be a Wallaby.

“We’ve just got to go out there and give it our all and just match them and hopefully we’ll be right.”

If not, Deans’s rebuilding Wallabies will anxiously enter 2010 – one year out from the next Rugby World Cup in New Zealand – just two defeats from equalling Australia’s worst-ever run of nine straight losses to the All Blacks between 1936 and 1947.

Tokyo or Timbuktu, this Test is anything but a warm-up for the Wallabies’ grand slam attempt of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“Last game of the year. I know both teams would have to have the last laugh,” Barnes said.

“We certainly would, so we’d like to right a few wrongs.”

© AAP 2012
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