Wallabies treating gruelling Autumn schedule as World Cup dry run

The Wallabies are carrying a World Cup-type mindset into a gruelling spring tour of Europe that Dave Rennie’s men hope proves a turning point ahead of next year’s global showpiece in France.

Australia take on Scotland, France, Italy, Ireland and Wales in five straight Tests on successive Saturdays, starting on October 29 in Edinburgh.

In effect, the Wallabies have replaced England in a quasi Six Nations tournament and view the end-of-season campaign as ideal preparation for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The Wallabies have lost their past three Tests, have not enjoyed back-to-back victories since winning five straight last year and know the clock is ticking in the countdown to the 10th battle for the Webb Ellis Cup.

“I mentioned early in the year that to have a good World Cup, you need to string at least seven games together and we’ve got five in front of us now against world-class opposition,” Slipper said before the Wallabies flew out of Sydney on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be hard and one we’re excited about, and the over-arching theme for us is consistency. We just want to be consistent.”

Past Wallabies outfits have often set the bar high and spruiked up their chances of going through a spring tour unbeaten.

Yet Australia have not won more than one Test on a European tour since 2016 and head off this year ranked below four of their five looming opponents.

But the ninth-ranked Wallabies still have big ambitions and are relishing being, on paper at least, underdogs against the top-ranked Irish, second-ranked French, sixth-ranked Scots and seventh-ranked Welsh.

“Australians love an underdog, especially Queenslanders,” Gold Coast-born Slipper said.

“But we want to go over there with the expectation to win as well. We’re not going over there to come second.

“There’s no good me standing here in front of you talking about what I want to do. It’s about going over there and doing it.

“You kind of want that momentum running into a World Cup. For us, it’s a great opportunity to start that momentum now.”

Slipper says Rennie’s 36-man squad can draw inspiration from the 2014 Australian tourists who ventured to Europe less than a week after Michael Cheika was brought in to replace Ewen McKenzie.

A year later, the Wallabies made it all the way to the World Cup final, having already won the 2015 Rugby Championship.

“That 2014 tour was a bit of a changing of the guard with Cheik coming in,” Slipper said.

“And then we had a roll into the World Cup, and hopefully we can as well.”