Wallabies won't be beaten in the desire stakes

Sat, Oct 3, 2015, 2:00 AM
AAP
by AAP

Regardless of the final score at Twickenham on Saturday, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said they wouldn’t be beaten out by a desperate home side.

England must win what is being billed as the biggest World Cup pool game in history to avoid being the first hosts to miss the knockout stage.

Cheika said the stakes of the game, or their opponent’s mindset, aren’t the source of the Wallabies’ motivation.

“It depends on what you’re playing the game for, why you’re really playing the game,” he said.

“If you go back to the spring tour we haven’t even had a year together in preparation for this so we’ve treated every game almost like sudden death.

“In the Test environment that familiarity that means that one game could be more important than another is almost, for us, letting down our country if we don’t perform at least with the intent to be at our maximum every single time we play.”

Cheika said he had worked to instil a pride in the Wallabies that motivated them in every Test they played.

“You're blessed to be playing in it and very game should be like it’s your last in that jersey," he said.

“That’s the way we want to try and build that atmosphere in the Australian team so our supporters can see it.”

The margins between a win and a loss won’t rest solely on a successful captain’s run, but Cheika said the final training could make up the barely visible difference between three points and none.

He hasn’t always thought that way but the influence of Wallabies vice-captain and one of his Waratahs charges, Adam Ashley-Cooper brought him around on.

“It’s probably the 0.01 per cent extra where these margins of these types of games come down to,” Cheika said.

“Being able to get your head around what circumstances you could be confronted, the good ones...and the tough ones when there’s 82,000 people singing their English song and putting pressure on us.

“Putting yourself in that moment and going, Okay, I know what that’s going to be like’.”

Winger Rob Horne said the external noise, that has continues to grow since the side arrived in London on Monday, didn’t worry him.

“It’s all a bit of fun. Nothing stirs everyone’s enthusiasm like an England Australia match-up in any sport,” he said.

“It’ll be a great night and looking forward to it.

Asked whether beating England was viewed as the Wallabies’ pinnacle, Horne was frank, as his coach has been all week.

“We want to win every Test match we play. It’s as simple as that.”

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