The Wallabies under new coach John Connolly are working on expunging the bitter memories of the demolition of the Australian scrum by England at Twickenham last November.
England’s domination at the scrum, where loosehead prop Andrew Sheridan was particularly impressive, was so complete that Australia tighthead Al Baxter was eventually sin-binned by French referee Joel Jutge for repeat offences.
Baxter’s fellow prop Matt Duning was stretchered off the field in a neck brace under the concerted pressure from the England tight-five.
Connolly plays forwards-dominated rugby and he has co-opted forwards coaches Michael Foley and Alec Evans to bolster the Wallabies’ pack just over a year out from the World Cup in France.
”This year is an opportunity and everyone is looking at it that way,” lineout general Dan Vickerman said at the Wallaby season launch.
”Last year’s results weren’t as you would have wanted them to be, so there’s an opportunity for us to go out this year and put our best foot forward and try things and prove to ourselves that we can do it and prove it to everyone else.
”We certainly want to be a lot more physical. I’m sure we’ve got one of the best backlines going around so if we can give them the ball I’m sure they can do the business.
”We have to be more physical and aggressive in all aspects at the breakdown and set pieces to give the backs good clean ball.”
The Wallabies have an unwanted international reputation of being soft in the forwards, but former South African Vickerman said under Connolly’s coaching regime emphasis is being placed on mastering their opponents.
”All the top teams in world rugby have top forwards who put pressure and squeeze opponents so if we want to be a top team that’s what we’ve got to aspire to,” he said.
”We have to come off after a game believing that we’ve done the business. That’s down to basically being able to execute each set piece well and that’s what good teams do and there’s no reason why we can’t do that.”
Vickerman is taking little heed of talk that England will be sending an under-strength team for two internationals against the Wallabies in Sydney on June 11 and Melbourne on June 17.
”England’s team is bloody strong. They’ve got a pack of forwards and a backline that on their day can beat anyone in the world. We’re not under-estimating our opponents,” Vickerman said.
”They’ve got some good experience and some awesome players, so we’ve got our work cut out there.
”They pride themselves on their forward play and that’s such a big part of their game and to go over there you don’t see too many teams get the wood on them there.
”If we can match it up with them I’m sure we’re a long way to getting to where we want to be.” – AFP
