Michael Cheika has warned that the Wallabies must step up against a Scotland side adding tricks to their attacking repertoire under new coach Gregor Townsend.
Australia play the Scots in an afternoon Test in Sydney on Saturday, having opened their season with a comfortable 37-14 win over Fiji in Melbourne.
Wallabies coach Cheika noted the recent history of close contests with Scotland, who have risen in the wold rankings to No.5, just two spots below Australia.
They came close to beating the Wallabies in the 2015 World Cup quarter-finals and their last five contests have been settled by six or less points, with Australia winning the last three.
Cheika said Scotland looked sharp in their 34-13 win over Six Nations rivals Italy in Singapore on Saturday.
Celebrated former Scotland five-eighth Townsend was taking charge for his first game since replacing Vern Cotter, who led them to fourth in the 2017 Six Nations with a 3-2 record.
“Gregor Townsend is a pretty progressive coach, he’s got a few new ideas,” Cheika said on Sunday.
‘He’s got a pretty complete squad. They are only missing a few to the (British and Irish) Lions, so they looked pretty sharp (against Italy) I thought.
“There were some clear things you could see they were trying to do and they scored three or four tries off moves.
“With Vern and now with Gregor, with their attacking game they are looking to play quite sharp, a lot of attacking kicks.
“Even small things like pretending to go for touch and taking a quick tap and running.
“You’ve got to stay on the job all the time, and then they’ve got the other side where they can play it tight and play a mauling game.
“We’re going to have to step up from what we did last weekend.”
Cheika reported no injures from the Fiji game and ruled out a big shakeup of personnel for the Scotland Test.
“There’s a couple of other players I think that could have easily been selected in the last round,” Cheika said.
“It won’t be wholesale … but there might be one or two (changes).”
He didn’t guarantee captain Stephen Moore would return to the starting side after being demoted to the bench for the Fiji Test.
“Maybe,” Cheika said of Moore’s run on prospects.
“We’ll consider everyone again for selection, a raw slate and then we’ll just go from there.”
Flanker Michael Hooper remained in charge when Moore came of the bench in Melbourne.
“I thought that dynamic was good and they managed themselves pretty well and that’s how they should be doing it. They’ve been leading the team for a while,” Cheika said.
Cheika suggested the small crowd of under 14,000 might have been a result of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby side.
“That’s what happens when you get into off-field dramas, on-field gets hurt,” Cheika said.
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