Tense Wallabies reach boiling point as Robbie Deans arrives in town

By Iain Payten
August 07, 2009

Robbie Deans arrived in Cape Town on Thursday to find his Australia team armed with a promising pre-Test mindset – close to knocking each other’s blocks off.

Three weeks of stewing on a loss to New Zealand has the Wallabies on edge and itching to make amends when they tackle South Africa at Newlands.

It has been a painfully long wait, and Wallabies coaches have had to make sure emotions haven’t spilled over at training sessions.

Following the dust-up between front-rowers Stephen Moore and Ben Alexander in Sydney two weeks ago, several sessions have gone close to staging a follow-up bout, with players throwing themselves aggressively into contact drills. On Thursday, Phil Waugh left the ground with blood flowing from a head wound.

For Deans – or any coach – the attitude is manna from heaven and is always seen as a good sign in the build-up to a physically intense Test battle.

“Everyone is pretty keen. We have had a few tough weeks at training and the intensity has been fantastic,” winger Drew Mitchell said.

“You can see it means a lot to the guys; things have been getting pretty heated. Everyone is raring to go and are up for the physical challenge that’s going to come.”

Wallabies assistant coaches Jim Williams and Richard Graham passed back the reins to Deans after the head coach rejoined the team following the death of his father, Tony.

For the first time in his 18 Tests since taking over last year, Deans named an unchanged starting side to the one that lost to the All Blacks but with Peter Hynes added to the bench at Waugh’s expense.

Coincidentally, Boks coach Peter de Villiers will also field the same side for the first time in his 18-Test reign.

Williams said he and Graham had been excited to see the aggression levels high at training.

“It is just a matter of making sure it doesn’t get out of hand,” Williams said.

“The other day, myself and Richard kind of pulled it up at the right time, which was great. It is certainly something you don’t want to (discourage).

“It is about making sure the intensity levels are there. From my experience, it is always good to have that physicality side of things and bring it to training. It all bodes well going into the weekend.”

The Wallabies are quietly confident but there is still no shortage of respect for one of the great South African sides of the modern era.

Captain Stirling Mortlock said anything short of a “composed, concerted effort for 80 minutes” would see them put to the sword like the Kiwis were on the past two weekends.

“This is as close to a complete Springbok outfit as I have seen,” Mortlock said.

“Just the confidence about how they go about their business as well. They are a team who right now are in a really positive frame of mind.

“They are playing a style they are very comfortable with and doing it very well. It is a massive challenge for us.”

There’s been little talk of this week of the Wallabies’ previous match but Mortlock said the Wallabies’ 53-8 hiding in Johannesburg needed to be in their minds.

“If anything, I think that’s a good thing for us. It reminds us how damaging they can be when they’re in the zone,” Mortlock said.

“That’s the reality of what’s in front of us.

“But the intensity levels have been pretty high at training, so from my perspective I couldn’t be any happier with that.”