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Wallabies hoping to fly under the radar
This new breed of Wallabies like to do things differently so preparing for a Bledisloe Cup Test in the AFL heartland fits the bill.
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Following their record win over the All Blacks in Perth, the Australians shifted their training base to Melbourne.
They won’t head to Auckland for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup decider at Eden Park until Thursday afternoon, allowing them to prepare for their biggest game of the past few years in peace.
They are well and truly flying under the radar in the Victorian capital with the follow-up from their 47-26 win over New Zealand only rating a small column buried amongst pages of AFL in one newspaper on Monday.
Whether by fortune or design, they are set to mostly escape the growing buzz around their chances of bringing home the prized trans-Tasman trophy for the first time since 2002.
Australia haven’t won at Eden Park since 1986 so lock Rory Arnold says it’s good to try something new to block out the external noise.
“Obviously we are doing things a bit different,” he said.
“In the past we’ve gone straight over and cracked on with the week but we are hanging around here to get some training done and some review done.
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“Obviously half of the papers are AFL so it’s good to be here and I’m looking forward to the week.”
The Wallabies will use the Melbourne Rebels’ training facilities close to their team hotel, while local-based players get a chance to spend time with their families.
It also allows them to acclimatise to Auckland’s cold, rather than heading north to Brisbane.
This year they spent a week in camp in South Africa before their opening Rugby Championship Test there in Johannesburg.
Between this Bledisloe Cup match and their final pre-World Cup game against Samoa in September they will head to New Caledonia in the South Pacific for a 10-day camp.
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The attraction of Noumea is its privacy and tropical climate with hot conditions predicted in Japan.
– AAP
