Rugby World Cup
Nathan Grey honing Wallabies defence for Rugby World Cup
ESPN Staff
September 9, 2015
United States 10-47 Australia (Australia only)
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Nathan Grey is looking to sharpen the knife of the Wallabies' defence heading into the Rugby World Cup. Grey was part of the triumphant 1999 squad, along with fellow assistant coach Stephen Larkham, and both were also in the 2003 squad that finished runners-up to England on home soil in Australia.

He is charged with the responsibility of organising the defensive line of the 2015 side, which begin its campaign against Fiji in Cardiff, and he likes what he's seen of the Wallabies' defence this year.

"It's a continued work in progress," Grey said. "You need to be looking at how you can sharpen the knife and how you can continually improve your defensive performance, and it's something that we are always working on. We need to be better, we need to be more consistent and we're training accordingly."

Luis Stanfill of the United States Eagles fumbles the ball as he is hit by Sean McMahon of the Australia Wallabies, United States v Australia, Soldier Field, Chicago, September 5, 2015
Sean McMahon and the Wallabies were staunch against the United States in Chicago © Getty Images
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The defending world champion All Blacks proved to Grey and his charges still had work to do after they breached the Wallabies' line five times in the second Bledisloe Cup Test of the season in Auckland.

"That game just highlights how important that, in the upper echelon of rugby circles, that you get crucified for little mistakes," Grey said.

"One missed tackle here or there and that's a try. Very good teams make you pay for defensive errors. You need to be very, very well equipped to deal with structured defensive situations, but also unstructured situations where you need to scramble and you need to survive and defend your line with a lot of passion."

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