The depleted Wallabies, still haunted by their nightmare against Ireland, heaved a sigh of relief yesterday as they completed training unscathed before their World Cup match against Russia.
Injuries are the biggest concern for Australia, who have strung together a makeshift side in what should still be an easy victory to get them into the quarter-finals.
Big back-rower Radike Samo is on the wing and there are two hookers and two scrumhalves on the replacements bench to reach a full complement of 22 players.
Despite being upset by Ireland in their second match, Australia should comfortably roll inexperienced Russia to qualify for the sudden-death rounds, but captain James Horwill said they were taking nothing for granted.
“This is a huge match we must win to go forward in this competition,” he said. “When you put in a performance that individually and as a group you’re not proud of it sucks and you don’t want that to happen again.”
If Ireland beat Italy in the final Pool C match it would leave Australia as the second qualifier from the group and a likely match-up with Tri-Nations rivals South Africa, but a cruel run of injuries has denied coach Robbie Deans the chance to bed in his top 15 before then.
In the backs, in addition to Samo on the wing, he has Berrick Barnes inside Adam Ashley-Cooper as his latest midfield combination, an area where he would ideally like a settled partnership.
There’s also a new-look loose trio with open-side specialist David Pocock returning from injury teaming up with Ben McCalman at the back and Scott Higginbotham, who has an opportunity to oust Rocky Elsom in the No. 6 jersey.
“Obviously, the injuries we’ve got are not ideal, but that’s the reality of playing contact sport and I have full faith in everyone pulling on the jersey,” Horwill said. “The combinations might be a little bit different, but the whole idea of what we want to do is the same.”
Horwill was relieved to complete training without further injury and was praying for the same result in the game after losing five players in their last match against the US, but written-off Russia have warned they will not be there just to make up the numbers and will take a hard, physical approach.
“We will not appear on the pitch just to watch the Wallabies play, but will try to demonstrate what we are capable of as well. This game can be a step forward on our way to progress,” prop Ivan Prishchepenko said.
Russia’s forwards have proved powerful and their backs have shown an ability to score tries from a set-piece, and hooker Vladimar Korshunov, who also returns as the team’s captain, said they wanted to stamp their mark.
“We need to feel free when we play Australia, spend more time on attack with no complex in front of the Wallabies,” Korshunov said. “Having about 10 attacks in each of the previous two games we have scored two or three tries. When the ball belongs to us we should not give it back easily.”
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