Clarkie's Test preview

By Greg Clark
June 26, 2008 AUSTRALIA were relieved to get a first up win over Ireland in Melbourne but they'll still be feeling rather nervous about Saturday's clash with France at Sydney's ANZ Stadium.
The reason I say that is because they are going into the unknown this time. They had an idea what Ireland would be like because they saw them play the All Blacks the previous week. No such luck with the French as they've sent a new look side with no real form to go by.

The Wallaby selectors stuck with the same 22 man squad and that came as no surprise.

While it was a scratchy win first up, all of them deserved another chance to work on combinations and personal form despite the pressure being applied by some standout performers in the Australia A campaign.

If anyone slips up against France in the first test we will probably see a change or two for the second test in Brisbane.

Robbie Deans and his assistants Jim Williams and Michael Foley have identified areas where they are demanding an improvement. While eveyone else is asking questions of our scrum again, it seems our mauling and breakdown work is where the main focus has been.

The French will be trying to create some havoc when it comes to the tight stuff so the Aussies will need to be ready.

I feel our backline will have too much class for the French but they do have some experience in key positions; Namely Dmitri Yachvili at scrum half, Damian Traille in the centres and Pepito Elhorga at full-back.

If the Brugess/Giteau/Barnes combo can click more often than it did in Melbourne, the likes of Stirling Mortlock, Lote Tuqiri, Peter Hynes and Cameron Shepherd will be very dangerous out wide.

While the bookmakers have pretty much written off the French, the Wallabies are doing their best to take them seriously.

As the coach has stated over and over again, there is no such thing as a weak French side.

If they get a sniff early on they'll grow in confidence and we could see a close match.

They haven't won in Australia for 18 years but apart from New Zealand and South Africa, they have the next best record against Australia.

We've played them 36 times and we've won 18 of them. France has tasted success on 16 occasions while there have been two draws.

The Wallabies will be hoping to play in front of a decent crowd as it's the first test match in Sydney for nearly a year but fans have been slow out of the blocks.

I know it's not the best team the French could select, but it's not the Wallabies' fault that the domestic competiton is still running in France.

This is Australia, our national team. Surely that's enough reason to support the Wallabies. It goes without saying, "if you're fair dinkum get behind Stirling Mortlock and his team".

For those not in the Sydney region, Fox Sports will have live and nationwide coverage of the Test match. Our pre game show starts at 7pm EST. I'll be joined by fomer Wallabies Phil Kearns, Greg Martin, Rod Kafer and Tim Lane who is currently coach of the Georgia national team in the European second tier competition and he's also spent plenty of time in France.

Fox Sports 3 will bring you live and uninterrupted coverage as Australia play France in Sydney on Sydney. But if you can't get to a TV, join Foxsports.com.au as we bring you live and interactive coverage from first whistle to last. Log on from 7.30pm (EST) and have your say as we bring you text-based coverage of the game.



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