Wallabies not impressed by All Black win
July 21, 2002

Winger Ben Tune says the Wallabies still believe they can win the Tri-Nations despite the All Blacks winning their first two games.

After downing Australia 12-6 in the first match last weekend, New Zealand backed up with a 41-20 victory over the Springboks in Wellington on Saturday, with a bonus point, to take a stranglehold on the Tri-Nations title the Wallabies hold.

But speaking on Fox Sports, Tune says neither he nor his teammates were overly concerned by the form of either team, and remain confident of claiming the Tri-Nations for the third year in a row.


"We weren't overly impressed by the skill level of the teams," Tune said. "There's nothing there that surprised us or is making us particularly worried. We realise that if we play to the best of our ability we can beat both those teams."

With the Wallabies set to take on South Africa in Brisbane next weekend, coach Eddie Jones says he expects the Springboks to begin the match in a similar fashion to the heavy work their pack did against the All Blacks.

"They've made their intentions pretty clear, they're picking their biggest tight five and trying to monster sides," Jones told AAP from the Wallabies' training camp in Coffs Harbour.

"Their approach right from the start was very physical and they really wanted to try to take it to the Blacks. I'm sure it's going to be quite an intense and physical tussle."

The South African player that Jones was most concerned about ahead of the game is 25-year-old fullback Werner Greeff, who scored the early try and a drop goal that helped put his team ahead 13-3 at one point.

"He was outstanding, he really attacked well, got nice pace, good kicking game and nice footwork," Jones said. "They certainly showed a lot of attacking flair in the game ... they've certainly got some terrific individual players."

The Wallabies have only one injury worry going into the match against the Springboks, but winger Stirling Mortlock showed no signs of his shoulder problem when he trained fully on Saturday and will duel with Tune, Wendell Sailor and Mat Rogers for the starting wing jerseys.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.