Classy fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper says the mid-week Wallabies’s historic victory over Cardiff has the Test side pumped to end their spring tour in style against Wales on Saturday.
Ashley-Cooper said it was “bloody great” to see Australia score their first win over Cardiff in 101 years, the 31-3 triumph snapping a run of six straight defeats stretching back to the Wallabies’s maiden northern hemisphere tour in 1908.
“I’m really excited now. It’s got me going. The boys played outstanding, really gave it to them,” he said.
“That was definitely what we needed, especially coming after that Scotland loss. It’s revved us up.
“The spirit and the mood in the dressing room is very contagious and I’m ready to go.”
Ashley-Cooper, 25, has added reason to be excited, having never played at Millennium Stadium, one of the great venues in world rugby, despite three previous trips to Wales.
He was on the bench but never got on during Australia’s thrilling 29-29 draw in 2006, injured his toe against Japan before the Wallabies’s World Cup pool win in 2007 and withdrew from the side with a groin strain three days before last year’s 21-18 loss.
“I really want to play footy at Millennium. It will be my first crack and I can’t wait,” Ashley-Cooper said.
“When that anthem goes off and the roof’s closed, it just roars, just buzzes. It’s fantastic.”
The Wallabies are especially desperate to atone for their numbing defeat at Murrayfield, Australia’s first loss to Scotland in 27 years.
Ashley-Cooper said coach Robbie Deans’s sobering dressing-room debrief in Edinburgh really stirred the emotions.
“He said we own that part of history and that really sunk in, it hit home, and we’ve got an opportunity to finish the tour off and make amends and really go home on a positive note,” he said.
“So that’s very important to me and very important to everyone else. It’s our last game of the year, our last game of the tour, and why wouldn’t we get up for this.”
And while there’s no chance of the grand slam, Ashley-Cooper still believes it will have been a successful tour if they can knock off Wales at home for only the second time in five meetings since 2004.
“A win against Wales at Millennium Stadium is always special, very, very special,” he said.
“They’ve had a really good run. They had a great win against Argentina last week and a solid win against Samoa. They’re on fire and we are going to have to be on our game to get up against these blokes.
“They’re playing some good footy, and they always do; it’s always a great contest against Australia here.
“You look at the last couple of games here, they’ve been cracking games of footy, especially last year, even though we lost, it was a cracking game of footy.”
rab
Guest
Must agree idiots on Fox If you want to here a lot of dribble & moaning you have only got to listen to them two clowns Phil must surely become a ref
Nick the Rooster
Roar Rookie
Members of a national squad beating a club team. What an achievement!
Parisien
Guest
you can't blame him for being excited about the game, and he has been playing pretty well. Just hope he remembers to pass the ball after one of his breaks if a team-mate is better placed!
funmaster
Guest
I just hope the wallabies dont get too pumped-up they forget to wear any pants, or atleast style their hair
SteveDarke
Guest
AAC is an ass, lets face it. His over-the-top in-your-face celebrations for a try just get on my tits. Every try the Wallabies score, he carries on like the game has been won. Save the histrionics for when you actually win a game or two Adam, instead of carrying like a pork chop and going off all half-cocked. Dill.
TommyM
Guest
And yet you still go on online rugby forums??
Cattledog
Guest
It's finally dawned on me...we've been playing the wrong 15 in the test side! Seems everyone was pumped over the Cardiff win, mainly those who didn't play I suspect. Anyway, I'll back Wales and if the Wallabies get up, it's money well spent. If they don't, at least I can buy myself enough to drown my sorrows!
John allyne
Guest
What a pathetic quote from AAC ater watching the Warathas and Wallabies for over 30 years they talk the talk but never deliver , and having to put up with that idoit on Fox Sports , is it somone called Phil the Dill, or is Greg the Egg i`ve given up watching rugby and have also cancelled Foxsports.
westy
Guest
Here goes it is important to talk about the game. A committed Wallabies defence to smother Wales 20 to 12. let 's get off the fence what do others think? cannot wait you have to predict. overcome the fear..................of a bleak day.
Rusty
Roar Guru
next thing we will hear is that the guys are full of fire and have been fighting each other in training, that they are going to play whats in front of them blah blah blah just shut up and deliver
stillmissit
Roar Guru
I wish one of them would say "Look mate we are playing crap at the moment. We are just out of our depth in several areas. What we will do is fight for the 80mins and we will see what happens at the end". I like several others are sick of the 'We are Up for It' talk. It is such hollow American feel good, pump yourself up (before the air dissipates) bullshit. This confidence is just a state of mind crap is killing our American loving youngsters, who now believe they dont have to work or develop new skills to win anything they just need to FEEL confident. I hate it. Somebody should tell them that confidence is something you build towards and it is deep and quiet. Not a premature ejaculation of the ego.
The way it is!
Guest
Talk is cheap. I would have put a media ban on the whole squad so they don't get egg on their face yet again!
Jameswm
Guest
The sports writers have to write about SOMETHING! Please, give us a quote!
Got im´ Gooone!
Guest
More hot air before a game!