Wallabies desperate to avoid sweep
THE Wallabies have rejigged their battered team as they desperately fight to avoid the ignominy of a 3-0 series whitewash against England in the final Test in Sydney on Saturday (5pm Cambodian time).
Coach Eddie Jones and his Six Nations champions have held all the aces so far, winning the opening two games 39-28 in Brisbane and 23-7 last week in Melbourne for their first series triumph in Australia.
Jones, a former Wallabies coach, has vowed no let-up in intensity and is urging his England team to go all out to sweep Australia 3-0 in their pursuit of becoming the top side in world rugby.
Wallaby counterpart Michael Cheika, a former teammate of Jones from their Sydney club days at Randwick, has reshuffled his side in a bid to prevent another demoralising defeat.
He has turned to the play-making skills of Matt Toomua at inside-centre, brought in the hulking Will Skelton to partner the recalled lineout general Rob Simmons at lock and has powerful Fijian-born winger Taqele Naiyaravoro among his replacements.
Cheika has vowed to keep the Wallabies’ attacking approach that has been negated by England’s forwardsdominated game and emphasis on high kicks. “Saturday’s match against England is a real opportunity for the Wallabies to show the character I know they have on the field, for all our fans to see,” he said yesterday.
“We will continue to play rugby in our attacking style and we’ll be aiming to do it with more consistent quality than we have in the first two matches.”
It has been a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Cheika’s men after the Wallabies reached the final of last year’s World Cup against New Zealand in London and went into the current series ranked second in the world.
Concerted pressure
England now have leapfrogged Australia to No2 behind the All Blacks on the back of their eight-match unbeaten run under hard taskmaster Jones.
Jones is demanding England approach the “dead rubber” Test the same away they did in the other games in the series.
“We want to be the best team in the world and we want to win the series 3-0,” he said. “If we want to be the best team in the world, we’ll be thinking 3-0. We know Australia will come back, they’re a well-coached, driven team. So we’re anticipating quite a feisty encounter in Sydney.”
Australia will have to find a way to counter England’s strong set-piece and tidy up their discipline and errors under the tourists’ concerted pressure.
“This is the time when you’d like to think that [the leadership] comes out the most, be it the coaching staff or the senior players,” skipper Stephen Moore said.
“As leaders we’ve got to drive that and make sure our communication on the field is spot on, so that we know what we’re going to do in every situation.”
Toomua will help inject some unpredictability into the Australian backline with his kicking and give more support to fly-half Bernard Foley, who has up to now been the Wallabies’ key point of attack along with fullback Israel Folau.
“He’s an experienced player, he plays in that role as second playmaker for us, so it was a logical choice,” Cheika said of Toomua.