Wallabies Arrive In Cardiff (2008)

Luke Burgess

The Wallabies gained a hard-fought 18-13 triumph over France in icy cold conditions at Stade de France on Saturday night, and have now arrived in Cardiff for the last Test of their European rugby tour. With wins over Italy and England, the Australians need to beat Wales at Millennium Stadium to achieve a rare northern hemisphere clean sweep.

Halfback Luke Burgess says they will need to be on the top of their game in order to conquer the Six Nations champions and become the first Australian tourists since 1996 to win four consecutive Tests on a spring tour campaign.

“I watched the Wales-France Six Nations game. They’re super tough and really skilful,” Burgess said.

“They’ve got a big halfback who throws very flat long passes and their forwards are really good. They seem to be very composed around their breakdowns and they just win ball after ball, ruck ball after ruck ball and they’re going to be very tough.

“I think it will be another game with a lot of tactical kicking, a lot field position. Yeah, it’s going to be tough.”

The Wallabies were hoping to receive a warmer reception in Cardiff than the chilly conditions they encountered in Paris, where the mercury dropped to zero during Saturday night’s game – before snow whitened parts of the city and its outskirts on Sunday.

“I haven’t worn those long sleeve skins for a while and I needed them tonight,” Wallabies centre Adam Ashley-Cooper said after the match.

“It was cold, one of the coldest games I’ve played. And I thought I was escaping the cold leaving London last week. But it’s worse here. What’s doing?”

Despite the trying conditions, Ashley-Cooper said the Wallabies drew plenty of positives from their third straight come-from-behind win. “It means a lot,” he said.

“It means we’ve got the belief now that winning’s a habit and we want to make it a habit and we want to I suppose address it again this week.

“We’re really starting to gel and we’re finding a lot of spirit within the team and I can’t wait for the challenge again next week against the Welsh.””