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By Darren Walton
August 20, 2009 Stephen Moore admits Australia are sweating on referee Jonathan Kaplan to give the Wallabies' scrum a fair go in the Tri Nations and Bledisloe Cup clash with New Zealand.
Kaplan's countryman caned the Wallabies, and in particular veteran tighthead Al Baxter, in last month's 22-16 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland, with three second-half scrum penalties totalling nine points ultimately costing Australia victory.
Under Irish referee Alain Rolland, the Wallabies had no such problems in Cape Town two weeks ago and actually dominated the Springboks scrum despite suffering a 29-17 defeat.
A diplomatic Moore on Thursday said the Wallabies were hoping for similar treatment from Kaplan, who has a history of causing heartache for Australia.
"I think he's is an excellent referee of the scrum so I'm sure he'll make the right calls out there on the field," Moore said.
"That's all you can hope for and we need to take the referees out of the equation as much as we can by scrummaging well and scrummaging positively, which is what we intend to do."
Moore, though, did concede the Wallabies had addressed the issue of Baxter's binding, which he was repeatedly pinged for at Eden Park.
"You always look at things after the game that you've been penalised for," he said.
"It was the bind that we got done for a few times, but in any other game it could be another thing.
"But we don't ever intentionally collapse scrums and we're pretty adamant about that.
"We didn't have a problem with it against the Springboks, so we're hoping it's not an issue on the weekend."
It came as no surprise to Moore that the Wallabies were able to shove the powerful Springboks scrum around at Newlands.
"It's been building that way for a while so we were pleased with the performance there," he said.
"But we're well aware that the All Blacks pose a different threat in that department and we've prepared in that fashion."
AAP
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-32464,00.html