Cape Town - The Wallabies desperately need a Rugby Championship win, but their attack coach, Stephen Larkham, says the only way to do that is to stop thinking about winning.
Larkham said their preoccupation with a final result may have contributed to their undoing in a 35-29 loss to New Zealand and their 23-23 draw with South Africa last week.
"We’d spoken about the last couple of games where we probably had an opportunity to win them and didn’t and maybe some guys were thinking about outcomes in the final few minutes of the game," he told the Australian Rugby Union website.
"We want to make sure that thought process is not in the players’ minds at all, so in our preparation leading into this game, it’s certainly not about the outcome it’s about the way we prepare and play on the day."
Larkham said the team was aware of public perception around its performance, with that South Africa draw their best result in the Rugby Championship so far.
"We’re aware that we’re responsible for rugby in Australia in general to make sure we’re getting results but the best way to do that is not to think about the outcome but more the preparation and your performance in the moment," he said.
"We’re not going to shy away from that, we’re going to try and play the game that we want to play and it’s a very entertaining game."
Larkham is proud of the way the Wallabies had progressed in 2017, despite their results.
"If you look at the two Bledisloes, which was our really big build-up games this year, there was probably 25 minutes there where everything went New Zealand’s way and they scored four or five tries and the game got away from us," he added.
"Apart from that over two games, the attitude, the grit, the determination that the boys have shown, we have definitely be proud of.
"We probably saw patches of that against South Africa, we’ve certainly seen it in training.
"The belief within the group and the attitude within the group has been tremendous through training and I think that’s something that people will notice when they come out and watch."
Kurtley Beale has been influential since returning from the UK, and Larkham said they couldn’t be more pleased with his efforts.
"He adds a very important link in our game, Bernard (Foley) and Willy (Genia) are controlling everything in tight and KB’s the man who calls for the ball when it’s on out wide," he explained.
Teams:
Australia
15 Israel Folau, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Reece Hodge, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 Sean McMahon, 7 Michael Hooper (captain), 6 Ned Hanigan, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Scott Sio
Substitutes: 16 Jordan Uelese, 17 Tom Robertson, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Izack Rodda, 20 Jack Dempsey, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Samu Kerevi, 23 Marika Koroibete
Argentina
15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Tomas Lezana, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustin Creevy (captain), 1 Lucas Noguera
Substitutes: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 21 Tomas Cubelli, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Manuel Montero