Breakdown 'physicality' key for Australia against Wales

Australia will be looking to improve their breakdown "physicality" when they face Wales in a must-win World Cup clash this weekend, scrum-half Tate McDermott said.

The Wallabies were dominated in that area in their shock 22-15 defeat to a thrilling Fiji side on Sunday, being turned over three times more often at the breakdown than they managed to do to their opponents.

McDermott, who is expected to return in the number nine jersey after sitting out that match due to a concussion suffered the week before against Georgia, says Australia will face another stern examination in that area against Warren Gatland's Wales.

"They're going to come with their physicality," said McDermott, the Australia vice-captain.

"They'll kick the ball a lot but they'll definitely go in to that breakdown considering how it went on the weekend, there's no questions about that, they're going to come hard there.

"They've got good backrowers that will put pressure there, so we've got to make that the point of attack."

Although Wales do not play a similar brand of rugby to Fiji, the way the Pacific Islanders approached the game in Saint-Etienne last weekend was similar to what McDermott expects his side to face in Lyon on Sunday.

"You look at the similarities between them, Fiji's mentality at the start of the game to take those threes (penalties), (fly-half) Dan Biggar's going to do that exact same thing with Wales," he said.

"We've got to win that physicality, if we don't then we're on the back foot, we invite those opportunities to build that scoreboard pressure."

 

 

 

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- 'Wales will make you pay' -

Scrum coach Neal Hatley admitted that Australia had not prepared enough for the fierce breakdown battle against Fiji, given that there are "150 to 160" rucks per game.

"We probably should have prioritised a bit more in the ruck because it's always important," he said.

Another area that did not work for the Wallabies against Fiji was their kicking game.

At the end of the match, when they desperately needed a converted try to level things up, Australia's backs spent around 90 seconds indulging in a pointless game of kicking ping pong with their opponents, who were only too grateful to eat up the remaining time.

"We definitely don't want to play footy in our own half and that's generally every team who thinks that way," said McDermott explaining why Australia persisted with such a fruitless tactic at that crucial juncture.

"We've got to be a lot smarter with those kicks, because against a team like Wales all you do is you give them possession.

"So you've got to make it a contest. If it's not a contest or if it's not going into touch, you're essentially just handing them the ball and a team like Wales will make you pay for that."

Meanwhile, Australia suffered a blow on Wednesday when teenage back Max Jorgensen was ruled out of the rest of the tournament after breaking his leg in training.