Wallabies sneak in on mission to surprise

THE Wallabies slipped quietly into Cape Town on Monday night focused on causing an upset by reversing a big defeat at the hands of the Springboks in Brisbane three weeks ago, into an unlikely win at Newlands this Saturday.

Australia are out of the Rugby Championship running and are in a contest with Argentina for the tournament’s wooden spoon, but even so, they talked up their chances of toppling the Boks.

After losing five of their first six Tests of the year, including a record 38-12 home defeat against the Boks in Brisbane, they secured a 14-13 win over Argentina in Perth last week. It gave coach Ewen McKenzie his first win in his four Tests in charge.

“We needed that win in Perth,” hooker Stephen Moore said. “It wasn’t pretty, but wins are never easy in Test rugby so it was good to get a result for the group.

“As a result we’ve seen the confidence levels rise. A two-week trip like this is also good for us as a group, but we need to translate that confidence on to the field.

“We understand it will be a big challenge against the Boks but we’re confident we can do that.”

“It’s still early in Ewen’s tenure and we’re still finding a game plan that suits us best,” said Ben Mowen, who captained the team against the Pumas. “It hasn’t been perfect so far but we’ve adjusted little things and that helped us against Argentina.

“We probably didn’t play with enough clarity in Brisbane. We spoke about little things before the game and then didn’t get to them in the match. It was disappointing, but a good lesson.

“We have a better balance now, but our mind-set is always going to be an attacking one. We have good, attacking players and we want to bring them into the game.

“There is a feeling in our group that we haven’t played near our potential yet.”

Moore added: “It doesn’t get much tougher than playing against the Springboks in SA but we’ve had some success here in the last few years. If we stick to our game plan we’ll have a chance.

“They (the Boks) won’t change. They’ll play a field-position game, try put us under pressure in our half and hope that gives them an attacking opportunity.”