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By Jon Geddes
June 09, 2009 The Wallabies' most-capped prop, Al Baxter, is convinced that Saturday night's opening Test against Italy in Canberra will be no spaghetti western.
The experienced front-rower says that the Italians won't be soft targets for their sharpshooting opponents.
Italy finished last in this year's Six Nations after losing all of their five games, but Baxter says that will only make them more determined this week.
"In their own words, they had a disappointing Six Nations campaign," Baxter said.
"I know they are looking to improve on their performances and turn around what they did there. I think that they will come down here looking for a bit of redemption from their Six Nations and certainly look to build going into the World Cup."
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is also wary of Italy, who are in the same pool as Australia for the 2011 World Cup in South Africa.
"You've only got to look as recently as our last performance against them, albeit at a tabletop at Padua," Deans said. "It was a good performance and they pushed us to the 70th minute."
He was referring to the Wallabies' nailbiting 30-20 win over the Italians on their spring tour last November.
"They probably won't be coming back to the southern hemisphere prior to the World Cup," Deans said.
"They will be over here to benchmark themselves and have a crack and take that last step which they failed to do last year.
"They are going to be more than competitive."
Baxter said Italy's scrum was their great strength.
He believes the game will provide a good test for the Australia pack after what he said was an encouraging start against the Barbarians at the SFS last Saturday.
"We hadn't had much time together so it was a good first hitout," Baxter said.
"But there are certainly some areas that we have to work on."
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html