Wallabies forward pack primed and ready to 'dominate the World Cup'

Australian forward packs have previously relied on a combination of brains and brawn to get the better of their beefy rugby rivals, but not any more.

Coach Eddie Jones said the heavy-weight Wallabies now had a forward pack capable of dominating the Rugby World Cup, which gets underway in Paris on Saturday (AEST).

Boasting the likes of prop Taniela Tupou and lock Will Skelton, who both weigh around 135kg, plus Angus Bell, Richie Arnold, Tom Hooper and Rob Valetini who are about the 120kg mark, it’s the biggest Australian pack assembled for a World Cup.

Jones said it changes the way the Wallabies can play, starting with forward specialists Georgia in their first pool game in Paris on Sunday (AEST).

“I never would have dreamt of coming to a press conference as a coach of Australia saying we’ve got a huge pack that could dominate the World Cup,” he said.

“We have, and we intend to use that to our advantage.

“We’ve got a really big, strong, fast pack that’s ready to take on the opposition and that starts with Georgia.”

Team Form

Last 5 Games

20 - 52

37 - 42

33 - 13

28 - 31

67 - 27

20 - 17

13 - 31

40 - 29

23 - 25

12 - 21

2

Wins

1

2

Streak

3

21

Tries Scored

10

-26

Points Difference

-39

3/5

First Try

2/5

2/5

First Points

3/5

3/5

Race To 10 Points

1/5

Jones was excited by the platform the forwards could lay for Australia’s exciting backs.

“You get this almost like roller ball-type play and then you get an opportunity with your backs to take advantage of it,” Jones said.

“(Samu) Kerevi coming back gives us another big running threat out wider, (Jordan) Petaia is starting to find his feet.

“We’re blessed with three great wingers, two will start and one off the bench that can win anything in the air.

“We look like a team that can score from a number of different places and a number of different sources.”

Skipper Skelton has dropped around eight kilograms in the past three months to add more mobility to his game while No.8 Valetini said he was fighting fit.

“I don’t think we’ve ever trained as hard as we have,” Valetini said.

“We’ve been up to Darwin and done a couple of days up there and it was scorching and the past two weeks we’ve had here and in Saint-Etienne as well and we’ve been getting flogged out there so we’ve been doing all the hard yards.

“I think, as a team, our connection has grown through all the hard work that we’ve been doing which has been good for us.

“I feel like a lot of boys are in good nick and I feel like I’m probably in the best shape I’ve ever been in, so I’m keen to go out there hopefully put in a good job for the boys and people can see the connection we’ve built and the hard work we’ve been doing.”