Wing Marika Koroibete is looking for the Wallabies to bring “brutality” to the Bledisloe Cup as they look to reclaim the trophy for the first time since 2002.
The Rugby Championship heads into the final two rounds with only one point separating the top and the bottom, adding further fuel to the historic trans-Tasman rivalry.
No team has found a consistent string of performances. However, Koroibete has been in fine form throughout the competition, underlining his ability as one of the premier wings on the Test stage.
Bring the physicality
The robust runner believes physicality is key to beating the All Blacks, as two confrontational sides in Argentina and South Africa found in their wins over New Zealand.
“It’s just more brutality,” Koroibete said.
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“Just contest on the ruck. Everyone across the park needs to bring that physicality, dominate the tackle and test their ruck.
“Just bring aggression on Thursday. That’s what they don’t want. That’s what the South Africans and Argies (Argentina) did to them when they won. That’s what we need to bring.”
Koroibete is set to make his 50th appearance in Test rugby after making the switch from rugby league when Michael Cheika was still the coach of the Wallabies.
Since his transition, the winger has taken the world by storm and looks to be completely transitioned to union with blockbuster performances for Australia on both sides of the ball.
The Wallaby credited coaches and players around him for helping him successfully make the transition.
“It took me a couple of years to learn the game and to make the transition,” he said.
“I’ve just been learning from different coaches.
“Learning from some of the players as well around me, how they play the game in the same position as well. They help me develop as a player.”
Stringing performances together
Meanwhile, Wallabies forwards coach Dan McKellar is concerned about how his side has failed to produce back-to-back performances this year and expects to face a confident All Blacks team this week.
“The reality is that we’ve struggled to put together good performances back to back and we’ve had a really good look at that this week – we’ve thoroughly reviewed,” McKellar said.
“We understand the All Blacks are coming off a really good performance against the Argentinians, they were totally dominant in all areas and will take a lot of confidence out of that.
“We’ve just got to get our strategy and tactics right in terms of how we think we’ll beat them and then make sure we train it well and that gives us a chance.”
McKellar revealed that the coaches have been looking at how the team prepares for games as they look to build form going into next year’s World Cup in France.
“As a coaching group, we looked really hard at how we prepared them for the second Test against South Africa and did we get it right, so it’s certainly been very thorough and very honest,” the former Brumbies coach said.
“I can’t sit here and give you one thing – one silver bullet – but it’s something that if you want to win a Bledisloe Cup or Rugby Championship, someone’s got to go back to back over the next couple of weeks.
“And obviously that leads in to the next year when there’s a bigger prize (World Cup) available as well.”
Fundamentals to work on
A review of the Wallabies’ loss to the Springboks has highlighted several fundamentals they needs to work on going into the Bledisloe Tests.
“We were beaten around the breakdown there’s no doubt and so it’s an area that we will continue to focus heavily on,” McKellar added.
“Our ball carrying, our clean-out work, we turned over possession off first phase, which is very unlike us.
“You can have the grandest plans about how you want to attack … but if you don’t win that area of the game then you struggle.
“If we dish up what we did in Sydney, then the All Blacks will hurt us.”
The first Bledisloe Cup Test is on Thursday at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, where the next stage of the fascinating 2022 Rugby Championship unfolds as all four teams gun for the title.