Eyeing a small slice of rugby history, Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock says defeat in Saturday’s season-ending Test against Wales doesn’t bear thinking about.
Mortlock’s men have the opportunity to join the Andrew Slack-led, Mark Ella-inspired 1984 grand slam-winning Wallabies and John Eales’ class of’ 96 as the only Australian teams in 100 years to complete a four-Test spring tour of Europe unconquered.
“If you’re a numbers man, you’d think it’s probably time,” Mortlock said ahead of what looms as an enthralling encounter at Millennium Stadium.
Wales are the reigning Six Nations champions and – unless England conjure a miracle at Twickenham against the mighty All Blacks – considered the last ray of hope for a northern hemisphere rugby community facing a calamitous 20-0 whitewash in Tests against southern hemisphere nations in 2008.
“They’ve got a huge amount to play for,” Mortlock said.
“And Wales are a team that always back themselves when they play us as well. They’re probably the most expansive team that we’re going to play on this tour as well.
“They’ve got a very solid foundation; their set pieces are really good, yet they have a great ability to use the full width of the pitch.
“They’ve got amazing backs and their forwards can play as well.
“We’ll be tested on many levels so it does pose for probably our toughest challenge of the tour.”
Coach Robbie Deans admits it’s critical for his developing side’s psyche that they carry the momentum into the off-season after a watershed first year under the New Zealander.
There is no doubt a loss to Wales would be viewed as a backward step after sweet victories over South Africa, New Zealand, England, France and Ireland in 2008.
“Like Wales, we’re trying to build a team that can compete and beat the very top teams,” Deans said.
“We all have a sense of making progress but everyone wants to feel that confirmation.”
Wales have made no secret of their desire to snare a Tri Nations scalp and rate their chances highly.
The Red Dragons have won one, drawn one and lost one in their last three meetings with Australia in Cardiff since 2005 and have been further heartened by sound, if not winning, performances against the Springboks and All Blacks this month.
“We have shown we can mix it with the best,” Welsh centre Tom Shanklin said.
But for all their huffing and puffing, winning Test matches – as Deans says – involves scoring tries and in 160 minutes of rugby the Six Nations champions have been unable to breach the South African and New Zealand lines.
“We’ve got to be far more clinical when we get the chances, and at the top end of the game that’s the big difference,” winger Mark Jones admitted.
“The South Africa game still haunts some guys – it was there for the taking. And then we were 9-6 up against the All Blacks and they guys are pretty disappointed at letting that go.”
Deans on Thursday finalised his line-up, saying Lote Tuqiri, who has yet to make an appearance this tour, would start on the bench having bracketed the star winger with Adam Ashley-Cooper earlier in the week.
Ashley-Cooper has a hip injury, leaving Tuqiri poised to play for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in September.
The referee for the match is Alan Lewis, the Irishman heavily criticised for caning Australia in the penalty count in the Wallabies’ 19-14 Bledisloe Cup loss in Hong Kong four weeks ago.
Bob McGregor
Guest
Having watched most of the Rugby Tests in Italy, France, Britain and Ireland over the past 6 weeks, I rate Scotland as the most unlucky as they should have beaten Sth Afr. For some reason I thought OZ had to play Scotland and am disappointed this is not to occur. But Wales could be a real stumbling block as their back three are very good broken field runners and if the Wallabies continue to kick poorly in general and broken play they may run us ragged on counter attack. Hopefully they will keep it away from Shane Williams, the IRB player of the year and deservedly so. He would be an automatic starter in any Sthn Hemisphere team. When we kick for the line it must go out - preferably into the crowd to stop a quick restart. General play kicking must give the kicker/chasers at least a 50/50 chance of challenging for possession otherwise it is a wasted tactic. The final result may well depend on how well our kickers execute at the Arms Park [Millennium Stadium is so hard to say].