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Jim Morton,
AAP
Updated November 26, 2013, 6:54 am
After eight straight losses to Australia, topped by three of the most tormenting defeats they've suffered, Wales have put the Wallabies in their crosshairs and declared: "Now is the time".
Welsh hooker Richard Hibbard and assistant coach Shaun Edwards pulled no punches in revealing how the chance for long-awaited vengeance has been driving them.
Wales have lost to South Africa (15-24) and beaten Argentina and Tonga this month, but far more is invested in Saturday night's clash with Australia at Millennium Stadium.
"Let's be honest, this is a game everyone has been waiting for," Edwards said.
"South Africa was a massive game against a world-class opponent.
"But I think at the back of the mind, everyone realises that Wales versus Australia have been brilliant games recently, so close, so competitive, a high standard of rugby."
While Welsh players dominated the Warren Gatland-coached British and Irish Lions outfit which toppled the Wallabies 2-1 Down Under this year, they are still hurting from their previous heartbreaking defeats.
The most painful was almost 12 months ago when Kurtley Beale scored a last-gasp try to steal the match 14-12 in Cardiff.
Before that, Gatland's men fell 25-23 in Melbourne when Mike Harris kicked a penalty after fulltime and they then suffered a one-point defeat in Sydney.
"We've been so close over so many games but now is the time to do it," said Hibbard, who was responsible for Harris's match-winning penalty.
"We have been saying it so long and now we have to deliver."
The 29-year-old played a key role in the Lions' series-deciding 41-16 win over the Wallabies in Sydney, playing like a man possessed for 47 minutes, even after a massive head clash with George Smith.
A concussed Smith was sent to the head bin and then controversially returned, while Hibbard hopped back up and went on with it.
He said the experience and confidence from that win would help Wales, a team he rated as wiser and more mature for winning the Six Nations.
"We (Lions) were physical, battered them for 60 minutes and that was the end of it. They couldn't survive after that - we have to bring that ferocity again," the tattooed hooker said.
"It was intense but one of those situations where you don't want to walk off the pitch - you're willing to crawl off.
"You would do anything for the win because it's that important.
"We definitely want to win this. We're going to win this and we have to bring the intensity from the off and the physicality right across the park."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...llaby-defeats/
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Bring it on... Trying to get "permission" to wear the colours to work on Saturday.. 
