Grand Slam ambition dawning for Australia against Scotland

Australia face Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday with coach Joe Schmidt trying to keep a lid on talk of a Grand Slam in a remarkable turn of events for the Wallabies.

His side are half-way to replicating the clean sweep of wins over the Home Nations -- England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales -- achieved by the celebrated Australia team of 1984.

Few gave them a chance of emulating one of the great Wallaby teams when they arrived for a November tour following a Rugby Championship where they lost five out of six games.

Yet they head into their Edinburgh encounter having enjoyed a stunning 42-37 win over England which they followed up with last week's 52-20 rout of Wales.

"We'd love to emulate it, but we're not trying to emulate it," said former Ireland coach Schmidt, who could be bidding for a Grand Slam against a team he knows so well in Dublin next week.

But the New Zealander added: "We're just trying to win this weekend."

The old adage of "one game at a time" appears to be serving Schmidt well, with the experienced coach having taken charge of the Wallabies after Eddie Jones oversaw a woeful 2023 World Cup campaign where two-time champions Australia crashed out in the pool stage.

Schmidt has made six changes for Scotland, with rising star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii restored to the Wallabies starting line-up.

The rugby league convert was named man-of-the-match against England in just his first senior game of professional rugby union.

Suaalii will make his second test start in the centers alongside Len Ikitau, who takes back the No 12 shirt now Samu Kerevi's tour is over following his red card against Wales

Harry Potter, meanwhile, has been given a test debut on the left wing.

The 26-year-old former Western Force man was born in London before moving to Melbourne as a child. After struggling to break through in Super Rugby, he returned to England and helped Leicester win a Premiership title.

During his time in Ireland, first with Leinster and then in charge of the national side, Schmidt was a hammer of the Scots, winning seven out of eight Tests against the Dark Blues.

But having seen Scotland push South Africa hard before going down 32-15 to the world champions earlier this month, Schmidt said: "I think the Scotland team is as strong a Scotland team as I've seen. I think the balance they have across the board is really impressive."

Scotland will have their strongest available side on show after last week's 59-21 defeat of Portugal, with Australia-born Sione Tuipulotu captaining a team featuring star playmaker Finn Russell.

They go into their last game of 2024 with coach Gregor Townsend looking for a statement victory.

"If we win, it will give us a massive boost going into the Six Nations because we're playing a quality side," he said. "I think it'll be frustrating if we don't deliver a performance that we've been working towards, if we don't at least match that performance of South Africa in how we played that night.

"That's what we're building towards. We train for a reason. We train to improve. We train to find a way to win at the weekend and that's the goal for us on Sunday."

© 2024 AFP