“Ross has been around the block long enough and he has dealt with it by throwing himself into helping us prepare as well as possible and allowing us to get ready”.
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Ford and Gray were hit with a three-week ban after their illegal two-man tip tackle on Samoa’s Jack Lam.
But in a subsequent statement, the Dark Blues confirmed they are only set to appeal the length of the duo’s suspensions and not the finding of guilt itself.
“But if there was ever a stage or an opportunity to do it on, the World Cup is ideal”.
“This will be the most hard game we play and that’s not disrespecting our other opponents at all because every match has been tough, but this will be the toughest”, he said.
“I think it’s still growing, we’ve still got a fair bit to improve on and I think we can take it to another level for sure”, Foley said of their partnership.
“We’re used to these sorts of things”, the Kiwi insisted.
“They haven’t lost a game yet, so they are the form team and the favourites not only to beat us but to go on and win the World Cup”, he said.
“That’s so important as we can’t get too carried away just because it’s the World Cup quarter-finals”.
Cotter, though, has chose to copy the Wallabies tactic after matching up London Irish’s Cowan with specialist seven John Hardie in a new-look back-row.
But Cotter admits his side can not afford to switch off like they did at St James’ Park if they are to have any chance. We’ll just ask them to improve the team with what they bring and both have already made contributions to the side in this tournament and I’m sure they’ll continue to contribute in spades. We need to play right to the end. “It’s a big loss for them but they have depth, so anybody that goes in there is going to pose us a big challenge”. “Then anything can happen”. Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw is the tournament’s leading point-scorer and said wins over Australia in 2009 and 2012 gave them belief heading into Sunday’s match.
“I think this is as good an Australian side as there’s been”, he explained.
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Meanwhile, Cotter has drafted Rory Sutherland, 23, into the 31 man squad in place of the injured Ryan Grant who suffered a hamstring injury in training this week.
