Wallabies aim to turn World Cup hopes to belief

Australia are in a challenging group at the World Cup, which begins in England on September 18, and Cheika said he had sought counsel from those involved in previous winning campaigns.

"I've been given excellent advice from many of the players and coaches who have been involved in successful World Cups and did successful coaching around tournaments," Cheika said at Sydney airport.

"They've really given me advice of taking one game as it happens and be in that moment, and I'm going to do that.

"We know we're in a tough pool and we know that by genuinely focusing on the one team that we need to play next in tournament play is the real way to approach it."

Cheika had said previously the Wallabies were hoping to bring the World Cup back to Australia, saying while they were not going into the contest as the world's best team, the goal was to leave it as such.

"I think there's a lot of people who are genuinely hoping we do well," Cheika said Saturday.

"Our objective is to turn a lot of the hopers into believers."

The coach said lock Rob Simmons, who was ruled out of the recent games against the All Blacks with a wrist injury, should be ready to face the USA in a final warm-up Test in Chicago on September 5.

And he warned the Americans were an improving side who played with a big physicality.

"It's a really good game for us because we're going into someone else's backyard," Cheika said. "They are a team on the rise, they just disposed of Canada, who are no mugs."

Australia open their World Cup campaign against Fiji in Cardiff on September 23 before tackling Uruguay, Wales and England, and must finish in the top two in Pool A to reach the quarter-finals.

Cheika said losing 41-13 to the All Blacks two weeks ago, just seven days after Australia had beaten them 27-19 to win the Rugby Championship, had given his squad some insights and they were working to improve their scrums, line-outs, driving mauls and kicking game before the World Cup.

"We try to keep improving those and then there's a couple of important (things to) work on that we think we can improve over the next few weeks to get us into a good space for the World Cup." - AFP

 

 

(Photo: Facebook, Wallabies)