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The All Blacks at ANZ stadium on Saturday is a game the Wallabies need no motivating for in order to get fired up about. They don’t get much bigger than this – and it’s a must-win to keep our Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup hopes alive.
It’s fantastic to be back in Australia after our last two matches were away.
We’ve had a good ten day camp leading into this game, working hard on the areas we identified that we need to improve on.
The intensity at training has been right up there – with James O’Connor and Phil Waugh even getting into a bit of a scuffle during one of the contact drills.
There was really nothing in it – just a heat of the moment push and shove (luckily for little James!). I actually think it’s a good thing to have the odd push and shove at training between players – it’s certainly a good sign that players are pushing each other to train hard, and once training is over its back to being mates.
One of the great things about sport is that you usually get a chance the next week to move on and change your fortunes – and that is something that we are all determined to do come Saturday night.
There’s a real sense among the group that we’re moving forward (albeit slower than we’d obviously like) and are determined to get into the “winning habit” after losing two games that we know we could have played a lot better in.
The next three weeks are very exciting.
It’s New Zealand this weekend and then two games against South Africa (in Perth and Brisbane) and you get the feeling that this is our chance to move forward as a group and prove that we can win games back-to-back in the Tri-Nations, bringing that composure and discipline we have probably lacked in the first two games.
All the hard work has been done for the week on the training field and now all is left is to prepare ourselves mentally so we’re ready to come out firing.
If we can bring that composure under pressure and discipline I mentioned, as a team, I think it’ll be a good night.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.