Australia eye strong start in bid to topple All Blacks / Photo: Ryland JAMES - AFP
Australia eye strong start in bid to topple All Blacks
Australia captain Harry Wilson on Friday demanded a strong start from his side this weekend in Wellington as the Wallabies hunt a rare away win over New Zealand.
The teams meet at Sky Stadium on Saturday with Australia upbeat after fighting back from a 21-0 deficit in Sydney a week ago to push the All Blacks to the brink in a nail-biting 31-28 loss.
The result meant New Zealand retained the Bledisloe Cup and Wilson said the Wallabies must hit the ground running to get revenge and end an eight-game losing streak against their arch-rivals.
"We have to start better. We can't be giving them a 21-0 lead, especially in New Zealand," Wilson told reporters.
"We took a lot of confidence from the second half of our last game and we really want to build on that."
In Sydney, the All Blacks ran in three converted tries in the opening quarter.
"We were quite passive early and we let New Zealand run on top of us, so we have to show some improvement there by winning the physicality in contact," added Wilson.
Australia drew 16-all with the All Blacks in 2020 when the teams last played in Wellington, and the Wallabies only victory at Sky Stadium was back in 2000.
"It's really exciting for us," Wilson said. "We haven't won over here in 20 years and we really want to be the team to do that."
Australia are without star winger Marika Koroibete, who is sidelined by a wrist injury, while scrum-half Nic White has been axed from the match-day squad.
White started last week, but was overlooked in favour of Jake Gordon with Tate McDermott the preferred replacement.
The hosts are under pressure to snap their Wellington hoodoo with New Zealand winless in their last five games in the capital dating back to 2018.
Two-time world player of the year Beauden Barrett has been switched from full-back to fly-half at the expense of Damian McKenzie who drops to the All Blacks bench.
Veteran scrum-half TJ Perenara replaces Cortez Ratima, while Anton Lienert-Brown starts at inside centre for Jordie Barrett, who is out with a knee injury.
Wilson dismissed the All Blacks' poor record at Sky Stadium.
"New Zealand is a high-quality team with a lot of world-class players, so you know your work is going to be cut out, especially playing over here," he said.
T.Wright--EWJ
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