We won't make the same mistakes: Sharpe
July 17, 2009 - 5:54AM
Lock Nathan Sharpe believes there's little chance of a repeat of last year's lineout meltdown at Eden Park when the Wallabies open their Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations series on Saturday night.
Completing the All Blacks' comprehensive 39-10 demolition of Australia was their lineout stealing eight throws from the normally solid Wallabies jumpers.
"That was one game where they got some good leverage out of their defensive lineout," Sharpe admitted on Thursday.
"Little things add up to bigger things so it's the small mistakes we made around the park - that translates to pressure at the lineout, that translates to pressure on the scrum or wherever it may be and that build-up of small mistakes adds to that pressure.
"Certainly we found that we struggled to get out of our own half last year because of that fact."
But the lineout chief is hoping the Wallabies can turn the tables on Saturday as they seek to end a 10-match losing streak in Auckland.
"They've got a very simple system they use but they do it effectively," he said.
"That's obviously something they've worked hard on over the years and it's something that we need to upset and disrupt, the platform that they're setting up, and also prevent them from gaining ascendancy in field position."
Despite a huge improvement in the Australian scrum, Sharpe said the tight five still had goals at the set piece.
"The one thing we've spoken about is just the consistency of our ball delivery to the backs from the scrum so we've worked hard on that," he said.
"The plan we've got going forward will hopefully hold us in good stead on Saturday night."
Thirty-one-year-old Sharpe is enjoying a late-career resurgence since he was omitted from the Wallabies squad to tour South Africa last year.
"I'm enjoying my rugby and that's the main thing," he said.
"When you go through something like that you try and learn as much as you possibly can and I've done that and hopefully I can continue to play some good football.
"It gets to the stage where you need to sometimes have a look at the way you're going about your preparation and it's not such a bad thing to have a bit of a shake-up now and then."
The Wallabies will have their final training run on Friday, when they will also get a look at the construction work which has reduced the capacity at Eden Park while it is redeveloped for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
© 2009 AAP
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