The Pumas media and fans have been talking up getting ‘revenge’ on the Wallabies - and it is something not lost on captain Harry Wilson as the hosts commenced final preparations for tomorrow’s rematch.
Head coach Joe Schmidt are hoping his team are feeling a ‘little nervous’ going into tomorrow’s game, and it was a sentiment Wilson echoed, having been on the end of a infamous Pumas response last year.
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“We do know what's coming,” Wilson said to reporters on Friday.
“We experienced it firsthand last year, and it wasn't nice at all.
“For us it's about building on our performance last week. We have a few errors in our game, which we know we need to improve to beat these guys again. We were down 84 minutes on the weekend, and only just got the win.
“We've been a really disciplined team now for quite a long time and one bad week doesn't change it for us. For us it's just about getting back to our normal discipline, which is just not giving away penalties, silly mistakes, silly errors to get the opposition into the game.
“Between him [Schmidt] and Lord [Laurie Fisher], there was definitely some constructive criticism there, which we always enjoy and we always do expect.
“In a game of 80 minutes, there's always going to be plenty of work-ons and especially when you're down 21-7 at halftime.”
The Saturday afternoon clash will see a rejigged forward pack, with Josh Nasser and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto the new faces to make impact off the bench.
“It's always nice to have some fresh legs coming in,” Wilson added.
“Josh Nasser, he's been training the house down for the past month or two, just been wanting badly to get an opportunity and he's got that opportunity now and I know he'll definitely make the most of it.
“[For Lukhan], you can see how badly he wanted to get back in this gold jersey, putting his hand up for every game during that Lions series.
“He's worked very, very hard and now he's got an opportunity in gold again, which I'm really happy for him. He's a senior figure in the Reds and Wallabies team, he's really bought into what we're doing.
“He's super excited to get his opportunity to play out there and play in the lights again because I know how much he loves pulling on this gold jersey.”
The shifting mindset towards the Wallabies has been reflected in the foot traffic, with tomorrow’s clash set to be the fourth sell out of the year for the men in gold.
For Wilson, who noted the impact the crowd had in pulling the win in Townsville, the pressure to back up good performances and rewarding the support is a major factor in their motivation.
“Aussies supporting the Wallabies is super special,” Wilson said.
“For us, we want to put out a performance for them to be proud of. We want to train well, we want to prepare well and then we want to go out there and put that performance in.
“Being a Wallaby player, being a rugby tragic, that's all we've ever wanted. We want to see rugby being talked about the way I believe it should be being talked about and it is at the moment. It's super exciting as a player.
“For us, it's about just maintaining that high level of training, our preparation to make sure we can keep performing at a high level and hopefully people continue to love watching the Wallabies play.
“[Spending more time with the fans is] definitely something the squad has taken on. When you're seeing sold-out stadiums, you're seeing gold jerseys everywhere in sold-out stadiums, it is really special and that support, we really appreciate it.
“On the weekend, I truly believe that support at the end of the game, how loud they were cheering for us was one of the differences.
“If they're there getting behind us when we really need them, the least we can do is post-game, go around, win, lose or draw, go around and get around everyone for being there because we were all kids.
“I remember lining up at Wallabies games, wanting to get my jersey signed and you just needed one player to come over to you and make your night.
“I think everyone in the squad is really aware about how much you can make a little kid want to be a Wallaby or a Wallaroo. I hope we continue that because it's definitely very inspiring for the next generation.”
