Days out from the World Cup, and Australian fans are on tenterhooks. Winless in their five lead-up games, the Wallabies enter rugby’s big dance ranked ninth in the world with the youngest squad since 1991 (average age 25.8) and only five players over 30. Most pundits and bookmakers don’t give them a hope in hell.
But World Cups are strange beasts – a little luck and a lot of effort can go a long way. Eddie Jones’s side are on the easier side of the draw and, although they face danger games against Fiji (ranked seventh) and Wales (10th), if they can win both and build some much needed confidence against Pool C minnows Georgia and Portugal it will give their callow squad crucial momentum for the crunch end of the tournament in October.
