Wallabies touch down
THE Wallabies and Springboks have arrived in Townsville ahead of the Rugby Championship double-header in the city.
Australia is primed to take on Argentina after a stellar win against the world champions – with their focus set on strategy, and approaching the Argentinians’ game with a lot of “respect”.
Arriving at the Townsville Airport on Sunday afternoon, the teams were greeted with performances by the Wulgurukaba Walkabout Dancers before heading to the Hotel Grand Chancellor.
The team is flying high from a stunning 30-17 win against the Springboks at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, which will put the team in third place on the world rugby rankings.
Former Townsville Grammar student and now Wallabies assistant coach Dan Mckellar said the confidence and belief in the team after beating the world champions twice was clear to see.
He said the team was developing well and showed plenty of positive signs in the week before the game.
But despite the excitement, he said the team was tasked with the preparation for a “tough challenge” against Argentina.
“We’re going to preview them thoroughly and have a good week set around training, and be very thorough in review of (our) performance last night,” Mckellar said.
He said part of that preparation meant showing the Argentinians’ performance a lot of “respect”.
“As we saw in their game against the All Blacks last night they will certainly challenge you,” he said. “Twice last year the Wallabies and Argentinians drew, so we know we have to be at our best to get the right outcome.”
Preparing for the challenge of fronting Los Pumas, Mckellar said the team planned to keep a strong focus on defence.
“There are similarities to South Africa in terms of how the Argentinians play – there’s a big physical side (to their game),” he said.
“They like to front up and line them out in the scrum; they will probably challenge us a bit more defensively. They like to chance their arm from counter-attacks, so we need to make sure we are on our game defensively.”
The Wallabies will play Argentina and the All Blacks will play the Springboks on Saturday.