Wounded Wallabies back themselves to upset All Blacks

The under fire Wallabies presented a bullish face in Auckland yesterday on the eve of the second Test despite the All Blacks being on the verge of claiming the Bledisloe Cup for a 16th consecutive year.“Our backs are not against the wall,” insisted captain Michael Hooper when questioned about New Zealand’s dominant 38-13 win in the opening match in Sydney last week.“We believe in our shape, we believe in what we can do... the mindset’s confident, the mindset understands what we need to do to be a contending team all the time.” The All Blacks’ win in Sydney put them one up in the best-of-three series. The first two matches form part of the Rugby Championship which also involves South Africa and Argentina. They dominated the set pieces and outscored the Wallabies six tries to one with a points explosion in the final quarter. The Wallabies have not held the Bledisloe Cup since 2002 and it has been 32 years since they last beat the All Blacks in Auckland but New Zealand coach Steve Hansen played down suggestions that today’s outcome was a foregone conclusion.Australia could have scored four or five tries but “just made wee mistakes” in Sydney, he said. As injuries and form forced both sides into changes for the return encounter, Hansen said the Sydney win was not as one-sided as it seemed and he expected a desperate Wallabies to be a tougher proposition a week later. “We have to play better than last week because we know they will,” he said, adding that backing up from one good performance was “the hardest thing to do” in sport. The All Blacks focus leading up to the Test has been on ball protection and controlling the breakdown. “They’ve obviously got some great guys over the ball so making sure we try and recycle as many phases as we can” has been the central preparation, according to captain Kieran Read.The All Blacks have made two injury enforced changes with Ngani Laumape at inside centre for Ryan Crotty while Rieko Ioane’s unavailability has seen a reshuffle to accommodate Jordie Barrett at fullback with Ben Smith moving to the right wing and Waisake Naholo switching to the left.Much of the finger-pointing in the Australian camp after last week’s loss has been levelled at the tight five where coach Michael Cheika has reacted with a front row shake up, bringing in Brumbies props Allan Alaalatoa and Scott Sio.In the backs, Jack Maddocks gets his first Test start on the right wing while Dane Haylett-Petty replaces injured fullback Israel Folau. Hooper said the Wallabies had done a lot of work to improve their set piece.“It obviously wasn’t up to par last week and it stifled our attack, put a lot of pressure on our defence to be able to deal with New Zealand which we did for a period of time. “So we’ve done a good amount of work on that this week. I’m confident with where our lineouts are at and the options we’ve got there.”All Blacks flanker Sam Cane sat out the final training run and while the world champions expect him to take the field at Eden Park his absence highlighted a lack of test-level depth at the position. Cane sat out the session yesterday after picking up a knee injury the previous day but captain Kieran Read told reporters the decision was purely a precaution. “It’s just precautionary and he’s having a day off today,” Read said. “At the moment he’s still good to go.”The injury, however, highlighted a wider concern for Steve Hansen’s side, with Ardie Savea the only other specialist openside flanker in the squad.Savea would likely start if Cane is ruled out, with blindside flanker Shannon Frizell expected to move onto the bench but there is some doubt as to who would be called into the side if the flanker was out for any length of time.