The Wallabies are looking to prove that they are not ‘one hit wonders’ when they face the Springboks in Johannesburg South Africa this weekend.
The Wallabies believed that they had turned the corner when they soundly beat the All Blacks in Sydney three weeks ago but were knocked back down to earth a week later in Auckland.
The Australians plan to ignore their history at Ellis Park and looking to build on last Saturday’s breakthrough win in Durban proving that they have finally turned the corner and on their way to permanent higher rankings and successes.
“Our opportunity this week is to back up, essentially, and that’s something that we haven’t been able to do for some time,” coach Robbie Deans told the NZHerald, adding a first win in South Africa in eight years had built confidence.
“They’re building a bit of belief I guess.
“When you get experiences like last week under your belt it contributes to belief if you use it in the right way. If it contributes to an over-confidence then it will bite you.”
Wallaby start Matt Giteau says that the Wallabies’ 45-year losing streak in Johannesburg had been completely ignored.
“(A win) would be very special, not so much for the history, it’s not something that we’ve spoken about. That’s the first I’ve heard of it.
“We’ve come over here with two games, our focus is to win both those games so that would be very special, more from the team point of view.
“We’ve obviously set our goals very high and we want to achieve those.”
The Wallabies fancy their chances against a Springboks outfit in disarray as the Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is under massive pressure with the world champions losing four of their five Tri-Nations games this year.
There has been call from all corners for the coach to abandon his controversial new game-plan.
But Deans said the Springboks’ situation wouldn’t impact on the Wallabies.
“We just do what we do,” he said.
“We’re busy enough doing that and conscious that there’s another group that’s looking to do the same thing and, as we’ve seen already, a week is a very long time in rugby but the great thing from your perspective in terms of interest is there’s always someone suffering.”
