No Grand plans for Foley as he focuses on Scotland

AUSTRALIA fly-half Bernard Foley is refusing to think about Grand Slam glory — and insists his focus is only on Scotland. The Wallabies started their autumn series tour of the Northern Hemisphere by thrashing Wales at the Principality Stadium on Saturday. Australia achieved the Grand Slam in 1984, but Foley (right) is not getting carried away with their start ahead of their Murrayfield showdown this weekend. ‘If you start looking ahead and past the Scotland game, that’s where we’ll stumble or fall over,’ he said, with Tests against France, Ireland and England to come. ‘Winning the Grand Slam has been talked about a lot and is well-documented. ‘But, as a side, we’re just focusing on being better for the next game and we’ll look at that first thing on Monday. ‘The Scots are a side we’ve had some close encounters with over the past couple of years. You can just look at last year’s World Cup quarter-final. They are a team that are well-disciplined and, if you switch off at a set-piece, they’ll really hurt you. ‘So, that’s something we’ll address early in the week and have a plan to nullify it.’ Foley kicked a controversial lastgasp penalty in that quarterfinal to give Australia a 35-34 victory. But since the World Cup, the Aussies have come under heavy fire after suffering embarrassing losses to England and New Zealand in recent months. England picked up a first ever 3-0 series whitewash in Australia, while the All Blacks battered their old enemy 37-10 to secure a consecutive 18th Test win. But, Foley, who scored a try and picked up the man-of-the-match award after brilliantly running the show against Wales, wants to use the Wallabies’ critics as a platform for future success. ‘There is a lot of external noise and there has been this year — it’s something we’ve had to put up with,’ added the 27-year-old Waratahs star. ‘But, as a squad, we’re taking no notice of that external noise. We’re trying to just focus on our roles in this squad and be really together as a group. ‘The resilience this team has shown, the character it has shown, and the tests we’ve been put through, it’s just setting the platform for future success.’