Wallabies and Waratahs fullback Israel Folau says that he has a burning desire to beat England in the second Test and exact revenge on his opponents for last week’s loss.
Australia were beaten 28-39 in Brisbane with England racking up their biggest ever score against the Wallabies.
Wallabies fullback Folau scored a try against England last week and is desperate to cross again – if not twice – this weekend in Melbourne and says that the team will go even harder this week.
“Yeah, there is a (burning desire),” Folau told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“There’s no motivation needed. We want to obviously square up the series and there is no other option. So we’ve got to come out and give it our all on the weekend and after last weekend the guys will be obviously ready to go. The boys have been working hard at training and we can’t wait to just roll out there on the weekend.”
The Wallabies will need to beat England this weekend or face the humiliating task of heading to Sydney for a dead rubber match as England will have won the series. Folau says that the Wallabies will be pumped up for the match.
“The last thing we want to do is go into our shells,” Folau said.
“The guys are ready to go and hopefully we’ll come out on Saturday night and give it our best.”
Australia enjoyed the better start in the match as they scored two tries before England were on the board before the visitors came back and ran away with the match.
Folau said that the Wallabies were motivated to put in a more complete performance.
“I guess it’s an attitude thing,” Folau said.
“I guess we’ve got to stay on top and be consistent through the whole 80 minutes. We learnt a lot from the game last week and now that it’s done and dusted we’ve been working really hard together as a team when we’re on the training paddock.
“I thought the guys in the back line really played well last week and someone like (Samu) Kerevi? who had his first Test, I thought he did quite well.”
“We can take a lot of positives out of last weekend and try to roll into this week but there’s plenty of room to improve.”