Australia coach Ewen McKenzie is channelling his own fury and has asked his side to do the same when they attempt to become the first Wallabies side to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand in 12 years tomorrow.
Victory at Wellington Regional Stadium would be a remarkable turnaround from seven days ago when they were hammered 47-29 by an All Blacks side that built pressure, took what opportunities they had and shut down the Wallabies attack.
The former Australia prop has given his young team the opportunity to redeem themselves tomorrow with only one enforced change at blindside flanker where Scott Fardy comes in for the injured Hugh McMeniman.
“I’m angry about last week,” McKenzie told reporters yesterday.
“I played plenty of games and I don’t suffer losing... you have to have that (head) space for your own personal performance.
“You’re getting an opportunity to play against the most consistent team in the world and that’s how you benchmark yourself.
“If you come up short and you’re a competitive guy then you have to say ‘what am I going to do about that’?”
The opening match of the Rugby Championship last week had promised much for the Wallabies with a new coach in McKenzie and a sense they could knock over an All Blacks side without the world’s leading points scorer Daniel Carter.
The All Blacks, however, barely skipped a beat and Carter’s stand-in at flyhalf, Aaron Cruden, produced a man-of-the-match performance before suffering a knee injury that has ruled him out for this week.
With third-choice flyhalf Beauden Barrett sustaining a calf injury, New Zealand coach Steve Hansen was forced to go outside his initial 28-man squad this week and give the pivotal role to debutant Tom Taylor.
The former Wales coach is mindful the Wallabies would be more dangerous after a further week together.
They have redemption on their minds, while the Bledisloe Cup is still on the line as they chase their first win in New Zealand since they recorded a 23-15 victory at Carisbrook in 2001.
“They’re obviously going to be more dangerous,” Hansen said.
“The mentality would be that we have to go out and prove a point and that’s what we expect them to do.”