No comfort zone ahead of Aussies’ Fiji opener

AUSTRALIA kick off their World Cup campaign against Fiji today, with coach Michael Cheika admitting there is “no comfortable feeling” in the pool of death.

Pool A also includes hosts England, who beat Fiji 35-11 in the tournament opener, and Wales, who trounced Uruguay 54-9.

“The teams in our pool will be having a totally different lead-in,” said Cheika. “There is no feeling comfortable in our group. Perhaps that’s how it should be. It’s the World Cup and it will be tough every game and we will have to earn everything we get.”

Cheika named Toulon playmaker Matt Giteau at inside centre and stand-out openside flankers Michael Hooper and David Pocock in the back row.

The strong team Cheika named is an indication that the former No 8 is taking nothing for granted, especially after Japan’s shock victory over SA.

“You’ve always got to have that readiness in rugby because it’s a contact sport. It’s a game where the humble usually succeed,” Cheika said. “In any one contest, you might go good in one scrum and then you might get pushed off in the next.

“You’ve just got to be on all the time. All the teams who are coming here now more often … are believing that they can win, as opposed to coming here just to participate.”

The Wallabies won the Rugby Championship last season. Cheika said: “We were able to get a bit of consistency. We’ll look now to push that to another level.”

Fiji coach John McKee made four changes to his “jitter-free” team. All four changes come in the forwards with hooker Sunia Koto, lock Apisalome Ratuniyarawa and No 8 Sakiusa Matadigo replaced by Tuapati Talemaitoga , Tevita Cavubati and Netani Talei respectively.

Blindside flanker Dominiko Waqaniburotu’s place was taken by Clermont’s Peceli Yato after the former was found guilty of a tip tackle against England and suspended for a week.

“We are pretty excited for the game on Wednesday (today) and excited to try and step up from how we did against England,” said Cavubati.