Australia head coach Michael Cheika has named his team to play Scotland in the Rugby World Cup quarter final against Scotland Stephen Moore and Matt Giteau winning their 100th caps.
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Moore is hesitant to take too much of the focus off the fact Australia is playing for a place in the World Cup final four.
The reward for the Wallabies was a quarter-final clash with Scotland which edged out Samoa 33-30, and also the knowledge they had avoided a semi-final showdown with World Cup heavyweights South Africa and the All Blacks.
“I think that the draw would have been enough for us but I didn’t know that at the time”, Paterson confesses 12 years after the event, “so I thought I’d better just get the conversion”.
“For us it’s the day-to-day grind of working hard each and every day, try to improve things we think we need to be better at and then, come game day, executing so that we can perform and get a result”. It’s obviously a very special week and I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. Japan were completely out-muscled in that area so rather than try to compete, they used channel one to get the ball out as quickly as possible.
The Wallabies showed defensive heroics last weekend to beat Wales 15-6 in a cliffhanger.
“It tends to be the way it goes but I’m looking forward to it. It’s a huge opportunity for us as we’ve nothing to lose as no one expects us to do well bar the squad itself”.
The united image the Australia squad have presented at the World Cup is neither a facade nor a public relations exercise, coach Michael Cheika said Wednesday.
In another historic occasion for Australian Rugby, Adam Ashley-Cooper will become the third-most capped Wallaby of all time in his 112th Test, overtaking flanker George Smith.
“It’s going to be a tough match for Scotland and they will have to go out and execute a game plan at a highly skilled level”. You’re probably sick of hearing me say that, but it felt in the Six Nations that we were getting somewhere and building something good, and we’re starting to see that again.
Don’t be mistaken for thinking Australia was forced to defend their line for long periods through costly mistakes of poor game management. “You feel for the players”.
“These games are really tight and it’s the small margins that are going to be important so that’s important that we prepare that way”.
“You’ll make that extra tackle when normally you might stay down”.
“You don’t want to be on the losing side no matter what”.
“We don’t deal in advertising, that is fake”, he said at the team hotel.
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Pocock is racing the fitness clock to be back on the field in time for Australia’s quarter-final contest against Scotland on Sunday (Monday morning AEDT).
