Cheika dismisses Woodward criticism

Everyone is trying to put their hands up.

The tournament, held every four years, starts in the United Kingdom on Saturday, and the time difference will have Australian fans staying up late and getting up early to watch the Wallabies play live.

Coach Michael Cheika has instilled a no-holds-barred training mentality to challenge his battle-ready players.

All Rugby World Cup matches air live from 5am tomorrow on Fox Sports Rugby (Channel 502).

The Melbourne Rebels young gun will be scrapping just to get on the field at the tournament in England.

Hooper and Pocock haven’t played in the same team since the Wallabies beat New Zealand in the opening Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney. If you picked a world XV they’d be nipping at Richie McCaw’s heels.

“They’ve obviously got a lot of skill across their whole side. Pocock is on the ball and Hooper’s better around the paddock”. They lost two games in the World Cup before the final. “He has to find that form”, Farr-Jones said. Waratahs playmaker Foley, has has averaged a 74 per cent strike rate with the boot at Super Rugby level and 78 per cent in Test rugby, suffered a bad case of the yips during the Rugby Championship. They needed to go somewhere they hadn’t gone before.

“You would imagine that Australia would win convincingly, but you never know”, he said.

“I’d like to think some of the enjoyment is back, although I’m sure the players want to rip off my head at times”.

“I look back [on 2011], this is a whole new experience”. Brumbies duo Speight and Joseph Tomane provide X-factor, but they are yet to prove themselves on the worldwide stage.

Australia coach Michael Cheika has dismissed stinging criticism of the Wallabies’ props from former England supremo Clive Woodward.

“To have those guys around with their knowledge and expertise, even the smallest details that they train and give us, adds a lot”.

Skipper Stephen Moore said the Wallabies’ two-week stint allowed the team to fly under the radar.

However, a resounding 41-13 thrashing by the All Blacks in the return match served as a warning that there is still a way to go to turn them into World Cup winners.

“I don’t think he’ll be right for the first game but he should be OK for the second game”.

“We’ll let that play out, we’re in a good situation”.

Having worked under Cheika at Leinster, Rocky Elsom wasn’t surprised by the galvanising effect that he had on what seemed like a fractured Wallabies squad.

“It’s been physical, I’ll say that”. “But picking his partner is more hard “.

Given his insatiable desire for the game, Elsom (32) still feels as if he could do a job for his country and had Australia changed their eligibility rules prior to this year, perhaps he would have added to his 75 caps – the last of which he won in 2011.

“We acknowledge we needed to improve”. Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13. Tevita Kuridrani, 12.