Co-captain Emily Chancellor and the Wallaroos are hunting for the ‘upset of the tournament’ as they look to take down world number one England in Brighton.
The Wallaroos control their own destiny at the World Cup, with even a bonus point loss or a tight defeat enough to advance to the quarter-finals.
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But the Australians have their sights set on ending the Red Roses’ 29-game winning streak on Sunday.
“We're looking forward to the opportunity we have to cause the upset of the competition. If we say that the last game was the game of the tournament, let's look for the upset of the tournament,” she said after the 31-all draw in the USA.
“…There is no other option for us at the moment. This is a game of do or die in terms of results.
“So we're going to take it seriously and hopefully put our best foot forward to show Australia and the world where we want to be and how serious we are about this tournament.”
The Wallaroos were quick to regroup after the rollercoaster contest against the Americans that saw the side lead for the majority of the game before needing a late try to Eva Karpani to salvage a share of the points.
“The message was really clear. It's not doom and gloom. This was a really positive game that we played against the USA,” Chancellor said.
“We had some really great outcomes in terms of attack. We defended for a huge amount of the game. And that was also quite successful.”
England have piled on the scores to begin the tournament with a competition high 25 tries and 161 points.
But the Wallaroos’ defence has been up to the challenge in the past fortnight, with Chancellor expecting a similar result.
“We want to nullify and that means that we have to be really clinical in defence,” she said.
“In saying that, I think that we've shown over the last two games when we've defended for huge parts of the game that we have that strength in our team.
“I think we're backing our defence but we need to be playing with the ball in the right parts of the field to be able to score those four tries [for the bonus point]."
