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Greg Growden | November 11, 2009
DUBLIN: The Wallabies want to prove they have finally found a cure for their second-week blues against Ireland at Croke Park on Sunday.
Robbie Deans's Australian team has a history of excelling in one Test before falling away in the next. As a consequence of that record, the Wallabies were almost subdued following their win over England at Twickenham last Saturday, refusing to get carried away even after they had been handed the Cook Cup. They have, after all, been there, done that and they realise their job is far from finished.
To ensure the players remain grounded, the team management need only remind them of recent events. When Deans took over as coach last year, the Wallabies enjoyed immediate success, winning their first five successive Tests, including Tri Nations triumphs over South Africa and New Zealand. Then, in August last year, the team suffered a bout of the jitters.
The encouraging win over the All Blacks in Sydney last season was followed by a collapse in Auckland, with the Wallabies overwhelmed by 29 points. Then they headed to Durban and recorded their first win on South African soil in eight years only to fall apart in Johannesburg, where they were on the wrong end of a 53-8 hammering, their biggest Test loss.
On last year's northern hemisphere tour, Australia beat Italy, England and France before losing to Wales 21-18 in the final match in Cardiff. This season, the excitement that followed the defeat of the Springboks in Brisbane was immediately doused by their subsequent poor performance against the All Blacks in Wellington.
All of which means that whenever Deans's Wallabies win, the camp gets decidedly nervous, worrying that the players might start thinking the pressure is off them.
Deans reminded the players on Monday not to fall into that trap this time, saying the measure of a great team is that it does not over-celebrate its victories but focuses instead on how to improve and achieve even higher goals.
As Deans said: ''We did read a fair bit of our own press after Brisbane this year and it bit us.''
But he said he had seen signs since Twickenham that a young Wallabies side was starting to grow up.
''Hopefully, that experience will contribute to an inner belief and resolve to keep going,'' Deans said. ''Still, there's no doubt that this Ireland Test will be another step up. These guys are grand-slam champions, Heineken Cup champions and they are playing at Croke Park.
''But that should help us in our preparation in terms of earthing our boys. We've just got to start again. We have to get the preparation right, so that we enter the Test in the right frame of mind and go from there.''
Towards that end, the Wallabies will benefit from some insight into what they can expect this weekend from assistant coach Jim Williams, whose close association with Munster means he knows many of the Irish players intimately, as does skipper Rocky Elsom after his successful season with Leinster.
''Any background of experience which can bring some reality to what we are doing is valuable,'' Deans said. ''Rocky has the potential for being distracted this week, but I'm sure he will handle that.''
Deans also confirmed the players would be given some freedom to enjoy Dublin. ''We're not going to shackle them,'' Deans said. ''We want them to experience the places they visit. But they also know through recent history that if your preparation is inadequate in any way, you can't turn it on on the weekend.''
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