Wales captain Sam Warburton is not looking for sympathy regarding the team’s long losing streak against Australia, insisting: “You are not unlucky nine times in a row.”
The Welsh last beat the Wallabies six years ago, since when they’ve suffered nine successive defeats, albeit five of those by a margin of four points or less.
Warburton’s men will look to end that run of defeats when they face Australia at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Saturday in the first Test of a November international programme that also sees them facing Fiji, world champions New Zealand and South Africa.
“You are not unlucky nine times in a row,” Warburton said Tuesday. “Australia have obviously been that smidge better than we have been over those nine fixtures.
“It’s not a psychological barrier. The first time I came into the squad was on the back of beating them in 2008, so you always have the belief when playing these teams.”
Saturday’s match has added significance given Wales and Australia are in the same group as tournament hosts England at next year’s World Cup.
Victory on Saturday would also bring to an end Wales’ long wait for a win against any of the southern hemisphere Big Three of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Wales have beaten South Africa just the once, in 1999, while you have to go back to 1953 for their last victory over New Zealand.
“It is a massive opportunity for the squad and it is coming to the time, which we have said year after year, with the World Cup on the horizon and the senior players in the group, that we really do have to get a win over one of these teams if we are to be considered one of the best in the world,” said Warburton.
“That’s why I respect the England team of 2003. When they had their autumn series they turned over all three of them and sent a real message to world rugby. That’s what we have got to aspire to,” the flanker added.
Meanwhile, Warburton said the way in which Dan Lydiate had been training with Wales belied his fellow back-row forward’s relative lack of game time with French club Racing Metro.
“I hang my head in shame – Dan has been beating me in all the fitness tests over the past two weeks,” Warburton said. “That shows he has been working so hard at Racing.
“He is in a very good place at the moment. He is physically strong, he is fit and he is performing well in training.
“Dan, defensively, is unrivalled by any blindside or almost any forward in world rugby in the way that he tackles.
“For me, he revolutionised tackling in 2011 with the chop-tackling, and I don’t think that I have seen anyone more effective at it. It will be great to have a firing Dan, which I am sure we will get on Saturday.”
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