Rugby World Cup 2015: England are wrong to target Australia scrum and we’ll prove it in Twickenham showdown, says Wallabies coach Michael Cheika
Australia coach Michael Cheika has urged his team to prove England wrong and condemn the hosts to the ignominy of becoming the first World Cup hosts to suffer group stage elimination.
England No8 Ben Morgan has indicated they will look to exploit their historic scrummaging superiority tomorrow at Twickenham in pursuit of the win they need to keep tournament hopes alive.
“I know they think we’re weak in the forwards,” said Cheika. “It’s pretty obvious that they’re saying it out loud. They’ve done it to us, they’ve stuck it to us the last couple of times so there’s nothing we can say that’s going to make any difference. The only place things are going to be different is on the field on Saturday night and that’s where we’ve got to show our colours. Talk’s cheap.”
Cheika has kept faith with the XV who laboured to a 28-13 win over Fiji in their opening Pool A match, despite a side featuring 14 changes running in 11 tries against Uruguay on Sunday.
“We set out with an original plan we wanted to run with and I feel that has happened,” he added. “There were a fair few tough selection decisions across the board about what would be the best mix to start the match, but we felt the team who played in the first game did a good job and also understood the improvements that needed to be made in the lead-up to this game.”
Australia team: Israel Folau, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Tevita Kuridrani, Matt Giteau, Rob Horne, Bernard Foley, Will Genia; Scott Sio, Stephen Moore, Sekope Kepu, Kane Douglas, Rob Simmons, Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, David Pocock.