Robbie Deans believes France will provide Australia with an important test ahead of the forthcoming Tri-Nations series.
Coach looking ahead to Les Bleus and July's Tri-Nations tournament
Robbie Deans believes France will provide Australia with an important test ahead of the forthcoming Tri-Nations series.
The Wallabies coach fielded an experimental combination as Australia rounded off a two-match sweep against Italy with a 34-12 victory in Melbourne on Saturday.
But he is aware the French will prove a far stiffer challenge next weekend, having beaten New Zealand 27-22 before going down 14-10 to the All Blacks in a physical battle in Wellington on Saturday.
It has been 19 years since the Australians last lost at home to France, but Deans knows his forwards will have to be on their mettle if they are to overcome Les Bleus.
"The French have had two genuine physical workouts, so they are going to come here honed around the contact and they are going to see it as an opportunity to attack us in that area," Deans said.
"We will be picking the side that we feel will do well next week. We know that playing France will be as close to Tri-Nations intensity as anything we have encountered to date, so it's going to be another notch up and we'll have to come up for it."
Experience
Deans has used recent matches against the Barbarians and Italy to assess his squad options building up to the annual Tri-Nations southern hemisphere tournament against New Zealand and South Africa.
He made eight personnel and three positional changes for the second Test against Italy and feels the experience his fringe players received against the spoiling Italians will serve the Wallabies well in the future.
"That experience at game time for this group is fantastic. You just can't replicate that sort of preparation in training," he said.
Italy coach Nick Mallett, while delighted with the committed performance of his out-gunned players, praised the Wallaby team evolving under the meticulous Deans.
"Australia have now got a pack of forwards that can compete with South Africa and New Zealand and they've certainly got numbers 10 (Matt Giteau), 12 (Berrick Barnes) and 13 (Stirling Mortlock) as good as anything in the world," the former Springbok coach said.
Giteau and Mortlock, along with first-choice hooker Stephen Moore, loose head prop Benn Robinson, tight-head Al Baxter and lock Nathan Sharpe, who did not play in the second match against Italy, are expected to come into the side to play the French.
