Michael Cheika: “If We Don’t Improve We Won’t Win”.

Michael Hooper is itching to play in Saturday’s World Cup final against New Zealand but he has warned that Australia have plenty to do to beat their old rivals.

Australia and New Zealand have each won the World Cup twice – the All Blacks in ’87 and last time around in 2011, each time on home soil, and the Wallabies won in 1991 and ’99, both previous times the tournament has been staged in the United Kingdom.

“You can’t be selective in your memory”, Cheika said yesterday. “You can’t think about the game you’ve won and then forget about the one you lost by 40 a week after”.

“We’re happy to make people proud of the way we play, because that is how rugby should be played – with a lot of heart, passion, enjoyment and throw the ball around”. That’s the joy of the game.

“On Saturday there will be 46 pig-headed fellas out there trying to win”.

In 2003 the Wallabies, coached by Eddie Jones, made it to the final in the tournament they hosted before losing to England through a last-second Johnny Wilkinson drop-goal.

“I’m not saying we are going to win it, I am saying you are going to enjoy a lot of good rugby from Argentina”.

“It is all about doing our job well every day”.

“After that, although I didn’t play I had a few of the best weeks with the Boks – just to see how the guys pulled together, how Heyneke [Meyer] got the guys behind Fourie [du Preez] and Schalk [Burger]”.

The Wallabies have found different ways of winning very different matches, clinically plundering four tries against the Pumas while somehow keeping their try-line intact, as they did in a bruising try-less group decider against Wales when successfully defending their try-line for seven minutes while reduced to 13 men.

The crowd has got more gold as we’ve gone along but we’ve pretty much been the away team the whole way through but our supporters at the ground have been unbelievable.

“They’ve peaked at the right time”, the former Wallabies lock told Fox Sports. “We have to be working hard all the time and believe in our own way of playing”.

“We’ve got to improve massively to even be in the hunt next week”.

Cheika said the early signs were encouraging that everyone would be available for the final.

Asked how much the Aussies had in reserve, Cheika said: “Probably about 80 minutes, I reckon”.

Despite what it looked like, Cheika is not jumping to any conclusions just yet.

Ben Smith, Jerome Kaino and Brodie Retallick continued their brilliant form in the semi-final, but this has been Dan Carter’s World Cup. “Matt’s better than we thought he would be”.

The coach said the initial plan was the same for Pocock, though the tireless back rower completed a full 80-minute shift after injuries to other forwards – including workaholic number six Scott Fardy, who has a painful hip injury but is also ready to back up against the All Blacks.