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Rocky Elsom says Wallabies must come up with own plan to beat Springboks
By Bret Harris
July 17, 2010 Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has rejected calls to emulate New Zealand's successful tactics against the Springboks in the Tri-Nations Test in Brisbane next Saturday.
The All Blacks stunned the world champions 32-12 at Eden Park in Auckland last Saturday by playing an up-tempo, ball-in-hand style of game.
While Elsom admired the way the All Blacks disposed of South Africa, he said the Wallabies would play their own game.
"It would be misguided of us to imitate someone else's game plan," Elsom said.
"There's no doubt about that.
"You get an insight from watching them, but to try and imitate them would be a mistake waiting to happen and something we are not planning on doing.
"As well as they went they are a different team to us."
Elsom said the key for the Wallabies was to continue to use the strategies they employed in the recent Tests against Fiji, England and Ireland, but to execute the game plan better.
"We are not making wholesale changes, but there are clear areas that we need to do better in," Elsom said.
"The scrum and lineout are key parts of this tournament because you are coming up against South Africa, who traditionally have an extremely good lineout, and New Zealand, who have an extremely good scrum."
Elsom, who replaced Stirling Mortlock as Wallabies captain for the tour of Hong Kong and Europe last November, is looking forward to leading the team into the Tri-Nations for the first time.
"It will be a big step up from where we have been earlier in the season," Elsom said.
"It's going to be a big challenge for us.
"It's the hardest (tournament) because you are playing two sides who are never weak. You play them three times each. It's fair enough to say you can beat them, but you need to beat them repeatedly to win the tournament.
"I have a lot of confidence in the guys. At the same time we need to realise that a certain amount of output is required to win matches."
Elsom has found leading the Wallabies this year far more challenging than the tour because of the relative inexperience of the team.
"It has definitely been a lot more challenging this year than it was on the tour, not that everything went our way on the tour, but it was a more experienced team," he said.
The Wallabies will be boosted by the return of frontrowers Benn Robinson and Stephen Moore for the Brisbane Test, but they will be without Wycliff Palu, James Horwill, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Digby Ioane and Peter Hynes.
"They are quite experienced players (Robinson and Moore), but it's not as if we have another team coming in," Elsom said.
"It's just the way it is that a lot of the players we are going with don't have a lot of experience."
Elsom was satisfied with the Wallabies' preparation for the Brisbane Test with the rookies applying themselves at training.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html
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