Wallabies coach Robbie Deans believes the crop of newcomers in his team is a prime reason why they savoured an emphatic victory over New Zealand last weekend, reports said on Monday.
Australia played some of their best rugby in years to vanquish the All Blacks by close to a record score 34-19 here on Saturday to top the Tri-Nations and take a psychological early lead in the four-match
Bledisloe Cup series.
New Zealander Deans, the first foreign coach of the Wallabies, has galvanised the national team after the despondency over their quarterfinal exit to England at last year’s World Cup in France.
Deans fielded eight players who had never faced the All Blacks before but they appeared unintimidated as the Wallabies scored four tries and finished just one point off their record amount of points in a Bledisloe Test.
”One thing which was evident was that maybe it was an advantage for us to have eight players who hadn’t played the All Blacks previously, because they came in with no baggage, no background of failure. So they
simply aspired,” Deans told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The newspaper said Deans has succeeded in quickly transforming the Australian team, providing them with a revitalised game plan that revolves around instinct, intelligence and playing real football.
Deans said he will use this week to warn his youngsters of the dangers of becoming one-hit wonders for the return match with the All Blacks in Auckland on Saturday.
The Wallabies head to Auckland not having won there since 1986. The All Blacks have not lost at Eden Park since France beat them there in 1994.
”We’ve started something, and if we don’t go on with it in New Zealand, it won’t be to much avail,” Deans said. ”That climb ahead of us is something we have struggled with in the past.”
Adding to the tension is that Deans, having been an All Blacks assistant coach, knows how the Kiwis are feeling, and how they will react.
”They would have hated that experience. They will be hurting, and they will be looking to make someone pay — and it’s more likely to be me and the team,” Deans said.
”They would have gone back into their dressing shed, and I wouldn’t imagine it would be a great place to be. And the way they respond to these things gives you an insight into what we are going into.”
Deans expects things to be frostier than usual when he and the Wallabies arrive in Auckland on Thursday.
”This may now be the most hotly contested Tri-Nations. You have one team who are the world champions [South Africa]. You have another [New
Zealand] who felt they should have been, and another [Australia] putting a bit of pressure on the other two. That’s great,” he said. – AFP
