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Life goes on for Larkham and Gregan
By Darren Walton
July 04, 2007
EVER the consummate professionals, it's business as usual this week for George Gregan and Stephen Larkham as the two rugby legends ready themselves for one last Australia appearance on home soil.
Gregan, 34, will extend his world record to 133 Tests when the Wallabies and Springboks clash in a pivotal Tri-Nations encounter at Telstra Stadium on Saturday night, while Larkham, 33, will join Gregan and David Campese (101) as only the third Australian to rack up 100 Tests for their country.
But the pair are determined not to get caught up in the inevitable hype their farewell Tests will generate, preferring to focus on conquering the Springboks to keep Australia's Tri-Nations hopes alive.
"It's like that Faulty Towers episode: Don't mention the war," Gregan said today.
"No one's really mentioned it, but everyone's aware. Particularly with Stephen, it's his 100th Test match. It's very, very important.
"But you've got to pay tribute to the team and the coaching staff and management staff, in the sense that we've just gone about this as another week.
"We've started preparing for another Test match as we normally do with our analysis and our rehab and all that sort of stuff on Monday and just made this week an important preparation, and everyone's gone about it that way.
"It's in the back of everyone's mind, but it's not the most important thing in terms of our preparation this week, which is good."
Gregan said it would be dangerous for the Wallabies to get lost in the fanfare for Australian rugby's two longest-serving players, especially with the Springboks stinging from criticism over coach Jake White's selection of a second-string squad.
"Any time you play the Springboks, you know you're going to be playing a tough Test match," he said. "Then when people question the quality of the players representing the Springboks, then they're going to take that personally.
"So this is going to be a very tough Test match, in which we're going to have to start well and build on what we've done in the last couple of games.
"We can't get carried away. Knuckles (coach John Connolly) said it and other players have said it within the group: it's about consistency. It's about building one good performance on top of another and not taking one step forward and then two steps back.
"It's important that we keep going forward, so the team's highly motivated."
Larkham said the significance of Saturday's match had left no time for sentiment.
"So far we haven't really delved into the emotional side," he said. "I know with (our last game with) the Brumbies it was a little bit emotional afterwards with the presentation on the field and you really get to reflect after the game.
"But I didn't feel too emotional in Melbourne last week against New Zealand. I know it was the last Test match in Australia against New Zealand, but I didn't get too carried away with that and I'm certainly not getting too carried away with this one either.
"Maybe after the Tri Nations is over and that period between the Tri-Nations and the World Cup there'll be a little bit of time to reflect and there might a few sad moments, or emotional moments, there and particularly after the World Cup.'
AAP