Wallabies training all day every day in Melbourne to prepare for All Blacks
Hopping on trams in Melbourne was only a slight distraction from constant training and connecting for the Wallabies and coach Eddie Jones.
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Connection has become crucial for a Wallabies squad changing by the match under new coach Eddie Jones and has demanded players spend nearly every waking hour together to build on and off-field relationships.
That also means no days off ahead of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup showdown with the All Blacks at the MCG and scrumhalf Nic White revealed every player had engaged in the need to get work done.
The Wallabies have been training every day for the past week after back-to-back losses to South Africa then Argentina to begin Jones’ second-stint in charge, after the coach made significant changes to his squad.
While the recalled players, including Andrew Kellaway and Taniela Tupou, are not new to Wallabies squads, they are new to Jones game style for which effective combinations are crucial.
White said that was why players had locked in to spending so much time together, adamant that “connection” was one of the quick-fixes the Wallabies could make for a change in fortunes.
“We are spending so much time together. We’ve spoken about it as a group and if we are going to connect and change what’s been and get different results, we’ve got to do a lot more,” White said on Wednesday.
“We are starting the days at 6am and breakfast, lunch, dinner, everything is together.
“You are starting to see a little bit of reward with that in training and the more we do it the better we are going to get.”
White said no “panic buttons” were being hit after the two losses and while better results were expected, he conceded big changes take time to implement.
“It’s taken a little bit longer than we’d like … you’d like results immediately,” he told RSN.
“We’ve had a good hard look at ourselves and we feel like we can change things pretty quickly. We’ve had a really good weeks (since the loss to Argentina in Sydney), identified some areas we can fix real quick and be in a real good place not only to give it to the All Blacks but to give this World Cup a real shake.”
The match will be the first between the two teams at the MCG since 2007 and the All Blacks have started the test season on fire with wins over the Springboks and Argentina.
But the last Bledisloe clash in Melbourne last year only went the way of the All Blacks 39-37 after controversial late try and that’s not lost on Kellaway who is set to slot in at fullback on Saturday night.
“Tweak a little bit of the management of the referee there at the end of Melbourne last year and it‘s a different story,” Kellaway said.
“If we reflect on that, I think the biggest lesson and probably the most important is that if we play the way we want to play we give ourselves every chance.”
Originally published as Wallabies training all day every day in Melbourne to prepare for All Blacks
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