They may have been whitewashed on home soil by England in the summer, but head coach Michael Cheika has encouraged his players to ‘think big’ as they attempt to complete a first Grand Slam tour of Europe since 1984.
The game in the Welsh capital on Saturday will launch their bold bid to win five Tests in five weeks and they will be attempting to make it 12 wins in a row over their hosts. It all adds up to another intense and close battle at the home of Welsh rugby.
“I think that it’s very important for players to have dreams of achieving the bigger picture items. I really do, I believe that’s important,” said Cheika, who has blooded 11 new players since losing the 2015 World Cup final to New Zealand.
“If you don’t have those dreams inside of you, then what are you doing it for? But the reality is that in a series like this, and a tour like this, it’s only the next day that counts.
“That’s in the background, but that will only come to fruition when we’re excellent every day and our players are learning. The team will be changing its components, not its identity, over this year and the next – the identity will always stay the same.
“Those guys will learn how to live that identity and play that style of rugby and then after 2018, we’ll start consolidating ourselves into a group that we think is going to take the team forward from there.
“We’re looking to win Test matches, too, and make our country proud when we play the game. It’s a super-interesting balancing act of trying to do both, but we’re quite enjoying that challenge.”
The Wallabies have won 10 of the last 11 games by no more than nine points and six of those victories have been by a try or less. You have to go back to 2008 for the last time Wales beat Australia and only Gethin Jenkins, Jamie Roberts and Alun Wyn Jones in the current squad have tasted success against the men in gold in a Welsh jersey.
