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Wallabies legend Mark Loane says Australia may be coming good at the right time and has urged them to load up on their lineout at the World Cup.
The world No.2 ranked Wallabies leave for New Zealand on Tuesday and play their first pool game against Italy five days later.
Australia will head across the Tasman in upbeat mood after recording wins over South Africa and New Zealand in their last two games and winning their first Tri-Nations title in 10 years.
Former captain and No.8 Loane, who played 28 Tests between 1973 and 1982, knows all about drought-breaking efforts.
He led Australia to their first Bledisloe Cup win in 30 years back in 1979 and was optimistic about the prospects of the 2011 squad.
“I think they may well be coming good at the correct time and I think we’ve got a pretty good draw,” Loane told AAP, after he received the Joe French award for significant contribution and service to Australian rugby.
He targeted the lineout ahead of the scrum and breakdown as the key battleground for possession.
“I think it revolves around the lineout because it’s very, very difficult at the breakdown to get it back, the scrum feed goes with your feed, kick offs go with the kickoffs, where are you going to get the ball back?,” Loane said.
“You can only really get it back from the lineout. It’s fraught with difficulties at the breakdown, and you can get penalties or not, it’s a raffle.
“I would like to load up the lineout, I think we’re capable of doing that.We need to take three or four jumpers intro a final.”
Loane believes Australia has sufficient tall timber to pursue that policy, especially with the international re-emergence of 197cm tall No.8 Radike Samo.
He feels the much scrutinised Wallabies scrum will hold its own and that the backs contain the linebreaking talent to uphold Australia’s reputation in that area.
“I think we have those backs, Australian backs are always the most creative backs in the world, they do love running rugby ,” Loane said.
“It appears to me that the way defensive patterns are now, that they are very very solid.
“But they are straight line defence like rugby league and if you actually break through like Will Genia did to set up that last try of ours (in last weeks Test against New Zealand), there’s a lot of space there.”
Loane is no fan of the modern-day law that allows up to seven replacements in a game.
“The fact that you have 22 players rather than 15. I would really like to see it, (and I know I am) a voice in the wilderness, revert to a 15-a-side game where you actually fatigue people,.” Loane said.
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.