Wallabies staying focused

Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 1:00 AM
AAP
by AAP

The Wallabies have maintained a day-by-day focus through their World Cup tournament but back Matt Toomua says it hasn't been easy.

Toomua said the side was ensuring their minds stayed focused on the next job.

“I think in the modern age it’s something that things like social media and stuff you’ve just got to temper,” he said.

“We talk a lot about it and we actually do address it in team meetings where we talk about how we’re going, how people think we’re going and where we want to go.

Toomua said it was easy to stay focused when they broke down their approach to a daily focus.

“It’s just about trying to get improvements all the time,:” he said.

“If you set out a weekly improvement, daily improvement all the time then I think you kind stay on task.

“It’s just fleeting moments where you kind of look and go, “oh wow we’re doing alright’ but they don’t do you any good.”

The Wallabies’ intense pool matches, against two of the most-supported sides in the tournament in host nation England and Wales, have prepared them for the knock-out stages, all of which will be played at Twickenham.

Scotland has played all of its pool matches away from London while Toomua says playing at Twickenham is beginning to feel slightly more routine.

“ We’ve kind of been playing knock-out footy from the start because we know how hard our pool was,” he said.

“Hopefully we are battle hardened. We’re in form, we’re starting to see Twickenham now as a regular ground, something that we’re kind of getting used to and I think that that’s important for us

“I daresay the crowd will probably be a bit more Scottish on Sunday but we’ll try and use that for our advantage.”

Australia has been big on praise for Scotland this week, whose captain Greig Laidlaw is the tournament’s leading point scorer and Toomua said they were looking forward to the challenge.

“For most of us it’s the biggest game of our career,” he said.

“We know a lot of teams that are here know how to win knock out games and it’s kind of tailor-made for the northern hemisphere in terms of defence and goal kicking.

“We know we have to be at our top every week so try and keep account of that.

“It’s another challenge, kind of another chapter in our books so hopefully we can put in a performance that we’re proud of.”

Israel Folau (ankle) and David Pocock (calf) both sat out training on Wednesday, four days out from their quarter-final clash against Scotland.

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