Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is without several key players‘We’re not looking for excuses … we’ve got a good squad’There is something a little different about the Wallabies squad who have bowled into
London for this week. It’s not the names on the team sheet. The spine of the team – James Slipper, Michael Hooper, Nic White, James O’Connor, Kurtley Beale – is all familiar, and even the only uncapped player in the squad, Ollie Hoskins, who has won an emergency call-up to the bench, has spent the last five years playing for London
Irish. No, it’s the way they’re talking about the game. Dave Rennie’s side don’t bristle the way Michael Cheika’s used to. There’s no needle. Maybe they’re saving it for Saturday.
Rennie isn’t too bothered about the “200 years” of rivalry between the two countries. The Wallabies are coming off the back of three Tests against
France, three against the All Blacks, two against
South Africa, as well as one-off matches against
Japan and
Scotland.