Matt Giteau says there are areas the Australian backline can improve © Getty Images

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Matches: Australia 20 - 21 England

Teams: Australia | England

Matt Giteau is confident he can overcome his hip injury in time for a likely showdown with Jonny Wilkinson in Saturday's second Test against England in Sydney.

The injured Australian playmaker was a late withdrawal from the team that beat England in Perth last weekend after succumbing to injury against Fiji.

But Giteau enjoyed a trouble free 90-minute session on Tuesday morning and is fancied to return at inside centre for the big weekend clash.

"Yeah, looking forward to it," said Giteau. "I got through today's training so we'll just have to see how it pulls up. We've got a day off tomorrow and another training run on Thursday, but it felt great today."

While Giteau is thought to be favourite to replace the impressive Berrick Barnes at inside centre if fit, the Wallabies veteran is playing things down in the Test build-up.

"The way things are you've just got to train hard and see what happens. The backline's playing some good football, so I'm like anyone - you've just got to train hard and hopefully you get the opportunity.

"You always want to play every game so for me that was tough [to miss the first Test]. This is going to be my third game in a row that I've watched, so I'm very keen to play."

The Australian backline taught England a lesson in running rugby on Saturday and Giteau expects Wilkinson to be among several changes to the England side.

"I think everyone's expecting Jonny to play this week, so we're not so much preparing for it but it won't shock us if he gets named," added Giteau. "I think he offers different things to Toby Flood as a fly-half, so with that comes a different game.

"Having said that, I didn't think [England] got too many opportunities so I think this week they're going to look to use their bigger backs a lot more.

"I think they'll probably make a few changes, which will probably improve the way they're going to play, but at the moment you don't know who they're going to pick so all we can worry about is ourselves."

Ominously for England, Giteau also said that he thought there were still areas where the Australian backline could improve on Saturday.

"I think there's still areas that we can work on but it was a massive step forward for us at the weekend as a backline. All the backs and even the reserves performed really well. We've still got steps to make and progress to make but it's moving along nicely."