Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says his side won’t be changing the way it plays as the World Cup progresses while utility Matt To’omua insisted there wasn’t any siege mentality inside the group after some controversial calls through the tournament.
The Wallabies have made a host of changes to their side for the second week in a row, with Nic White and Christian Lealiifano returning to the halves.
A loss to Wales on Sunday means they need at least one more win to secure a final eight spot and Cheika said he wasn't looking to knockout matches in a fortnight's time and working backwards to determine their approach, rather continuing on the path they had set from day one.
“I think we just want to think about this game. If you start thinking you're in the quarter-finals, you leave yourself open to attack and we're genuinely not,“ he said.
"We'll just build momentum from there and work it out.
"We're looking at this game for the sole nature of taking on our opponent and doing our absolute best
"From the time we played them four years ago to now, they're a much improved side.
"We want to make sure that we're focused on ourselves and how we play the game.
"We'll just build momentum from there and work it out.
"Also, our game plan is not going to change a whole lot.
"We're playing a different way this year, I think you probably would have noticed it. We just want to play the best we can.”
Cheika has been quick to label his team tournament underdogs, last week saying in response to winger Reece Hodge’s suspension that it was “us versus them”, but To’omua said players didn’t feel as though they were under siege at all after that suspension and the discussion surrounding Samu Kerevi's penalty for an attempted fend on Rhys Patchell.
“I wouldn’t say that’s the feeling within camp in the sense that we’re thinking everyone is against us,” he said.
“There have been a couple instances and you’ve seen them in other games. I don’t think either have had a direct impact or effect on the result of the game which is the main thing.
“If it was a last-minute thing we might have felt hard-done by but we lost on the weekend because we were the worst of the two teams.
“That’s where our focus has been. If it was a little different scenario we might feel a bit more hard done by but no I don’t think that’s the feeling at the moment.”
A penalty against Samu Kerevi for an attempted fend on Wales back Rhys Patchell became a major discussion point in the wake of Australia's loss to Wales, with Cheika and Kerevi expressing confusion about the
To'omua said nether that nor the Reece Hodge case had changed the way the players were approaching matches.
“You’ve seen in the past people lead with forearms and get done and I think people know that,” he said.
“This is probably a little different. In saying that there is a framework we’ve got to adjust to so we’ve got to be better there.
"It is tough as a rugby player, you play a certain way your whole life and I think most rugby players would look at a lot of the incidences as think it’s okay and see a bit of malice in some other ones.
“It is an interesting kind of space at the moment.”
The Wallabies have let their opponents get away from them early on in their first two World Cup matches, falling nine and 18 points behind Fiji and Wales, respectively, but Cheika said he didn’t feel like they were doing anything strategically different either side of half-time.
"We don't have different tactics from the start of the match,” he said.
"If you watch it closely, I wouldn't say we're suffering in going wide or trying to go around teams.
"Probably more a couple of things around, when we have got in behind teams, ball handling.
"We've lost a couple of balls early on in games when we've got in behind the opposition and then we've tidied those things up.
"The other thing too is that we've trained quite hard. I feel like the team's in good condition.
"Maybe we're feeling good at the end of games as well so we're probably able to keep the ball. Maybe we're able to stay in the contest a bit more.
"There's also a variable there called the opposition too. Where they play and what they do, you've always got to contest for, you've always got to account for.
"You're never just doing whatever you want on a field.
"You've got to do your best to do what you want and I can assure you - and I'm not giving away any secrets here - we aren't starting with one strategy and finishing with another.
"We want to play a certain way the whole time and just play our game and see where the cards fall after that.”
Cheika said the reason behind so many changes to his team was about giving players who have had limited time an opportunity to prove themselves.
"I think it’s a chance to give some guys who haven’t played any footy yet an opportunity to play," he said.
"We were always going to use pour whole squad.
"We’ve got the type of squad where you can do that.
"If you look at a guy like Rob Simmons coming in for his 99th Test, Adam Coleman who has been a regular starter for the team, Jack Dempsey has played a lot of footy in the Test team, as have the props, so we’ve been fortunate in a way through the building we’ve done over the past few years that we’ve got that type of team."
The Wallabies play Uruguay in Oita on Saturday October 5, kicking off at 2:15pm local, 3:15pm AEST, LIVE on Foxtel, Network Ten and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO, Rugby Xplorer and Amazon Alexa.
