Wallabies not going down that slippery slope
The Wallabies are carrying a World Cup-type mindset into a gruelling year-end tour of Europe that Dave Rennie’s men hope proves a turning point ahead of next year’s global showpiece in France.
Australia takes on Scotland, France, Italy, Ireland and Wales in five straight Tests on successive Saturdays, starting on October 29 in Edinburgh.
In effect, the Wallabies have replaced England in a quasi-Six Nations tournament and view the end-of-season campaign as ideal preparation for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The Wallabies have lost their past three Tests, have not enjoyed back-to-back victories since winning five straight last year and know the clock is ticking in the countdown to the 10th battle for the Webb Ellis Cup.
“I mentioned early in the year that to have a good World Cup, you need to string at least seven games together and we’ve got five in front of us now against world-class opposition,” Slipper said before the Wallabies flew out of Sydney on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be hard and one we’re excited about, and the over-arching theme for us is consistency. We just want to be consistent.”
Past Wallabies outfits have often set the bar high and spruiked up their chances of going through a year-end tour unbeaten.
Yet Australia has not won more than one Test on a European tour since 2016 and heads off this year ranked below four of their five looming opponents.
But the ninth-ranked Wallabies still have big ambitions and are relishing being, on paper at least, underdogs against the top-ranked Irish, second-ranked French, sixth-ranked Scots and seventh-ranked Welsh.
“Australians love an underdog, especially Queenslanders,” Gold Coast-born Slipper said.
“But we want to go over there with the expectation to win as well. We’re not going over there to come second.
“There’s no good me standing here before you talking about what I want to do. It’s about going over there and doing it.
“You kind of want that momentum running into a World Cup. For us, it’s a great opportunity to start that momentum now.”
Slipper says Rennie’s 36-man squad can draw inspiration from the 2014 Australian tourists who ventured to Europe less than a week after Michael Cheika was brought in to replace Ewen McKenzie.
A year later, the Wallabies made it all the way to the World Cup final, having already won the 2015 Rugby Championship.
“That 2014 tour was a bit of a changing of the guard with ‘Cheik’ coming in,” Slipper said.
“And then we had a roll into the World Cup, and hopefully we can as well.”
The Wallabies will travel to the Northern Hemisphere without Matt Philip after the luckless lock ruptured an ACL on Wednesday.
Philip, who started in seven Tests this year, fell awkwardly in a line-out and faces several months on the sideline, casting doubt about his hopes of making it to the World Cup.
Australia’s year-end tour schedule
October 30: v Scotland, Murrayfield, Edinburgh
November 6: v France, Stade de France, Paris
November 13: v Italy, Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
November 20: v Ireland, Lansdowne Road, Dublin
November 27: v Wales, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
