Wallabies quick to deflect Coles praise
Cut it out Colesy. That’s the message from a grizzled Wallabies front-rower after All Blacks hooker Dane Coles talked up the Australian scrum ahead of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup rumble.
Coles said in Perth this week that the Wallabies had given Argentina ‘‘a bit of a touch up’’ at the vital set piece in a 16-10 win in Brisbane.
‘‘I think it is coming down to they’ve adjusted to that new law better than other teams,’’ the 63-test veteran said.
‘‘They caused a bit of damage with their front row.
‘‘And our game we weren’t too flash, we got pushed over the ball a couple of times by the Boks. So we need to do a bit of work there. They have a pretty experienced front row and obviously the bench came on and did a job as well.’’
Coles warned the All Blacks would ‘‘need to adapt a bit better and be a bit sharper, to stay in the game’’.
But Australia’s’ 101-cap tighthead prop Sekope Kepu isn’t being seduced by Coles’ kudos, insisting the All Blacks were ‘‘a world class team’’.
‘‘You only have to look through their forward pack and the experience they’ve got, the test caps they’ve got, they’ve played together really well,’’ Kepu said.
‘‘The front row with [Joe] Moody, Codie [Taylor] and Owen [Franks], they’ve got that chemistry from the Crusaders and everyone else behind them. They’re not going to sweat it too much.
‘‘I’m sure they’ll prepare really, really well and want to bounce back as we did from the Springboks the first week. The challenge for us is to rise to that and just keep building.
‘‘We’re not going to rest on our laurels and think we’ve done a great job. We’ve parked that and we’ve got a massive, massive challenge on Saturday. We can’t be fooled into thinking otherwise.’’