'That's not good enough': Wallabies determined to end losing run

Close enough will not be good enough for the Wallabies, even with an untried flyhalf and familiar French pack ready to inflict a sixth-straight Test defeat on the hosts in Brisbane.

That is what skipper Harry Wilson has drilled into his team all week after a frustrating 33-31 Nations Championship loss to Ireland in Sydney placed them on the cusp of a 10-year low.

Not since 2016 have the Australians lost six consecutive Tests.

Defeat at Lang Park on Saturday against the world number four side, and back-to-back Six Nations champions, would equal that.

But it would also make it just one win — a scrappy 19-15 defeat of Japan in Tokyo — from their last 10 appearances, dating back to a last-gasp defeat of Argentina in Townsville last September.

A tight 2-1 series loss to the British and Irish Lions was followed by a historic win and eight-point loss in a South African double-header, before they prevailed in north Queensland.

When Wilson's gamble to go for touch and a match-winning try, rather than a game-tying penalty kick, paid off against Los Pumas is appeared as if Joe Schmidt's side had turned a corner.

Injuries slowly suffocated Schmidt's side though and the hurt continued last week in Sydney, Ben Donaldson missing a kick after the siren to win the game, after a lacklustre 0-4 tour of Europe.

With a home Rugby World Cup on the horizon and Les Kiss to take over from Schmidt after next week's Perth Test against Italy, Wilson said there was no comfort in brave losses.

"We know we need to win. We had a few good moments, but that's not good enough, we have to start icing them," he said.

"We're definitely bothered by it; we're here to win and no team can sit there and say we're happy with being close and improving.

"Playing in front of 52,000 supporters … we're here to win."

Declan Meredith will debut in the number 10 for the hosts after last week's playmakers Carter Gordon and Donaldson both succumbed to calf injuries.

The 27-year-old Cairns product earned his cap the hard way, dominating club rugby in Canberra and eventually cracking a starting berth at the ACT Brumbies this year.

He will be the seventh specialist flyhalf used by Schmidt in the last 17 Tests, the revolving door mostly caused by injuries that the coach this week coined the "curse of the 10 jersey".

"This week, it's been a massive week for him … a boy from Cairns playing in his home state, but he's just been switched on," Wilson, who didn't know Meredith until camp assembled late last month, said.

"He seems very level-headed and he's excited. We back him, we believe in him."

Wilson is more familiar with a few of the French forwards.

Lock Emmanuel Meafou played at Brothers with Wilson, Fraser McReight and Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou, before passing up a spot in the NFL's global academy to sign with Top 14 powerhouse Toulouse and debut for the French last year.

Prop Moses Alo-Emile played in Ipswich and Brisbane, before moving as a teenager to join brother Paul at Stade Français eight years ago and will make his Test debut in familiar surrounds.

Tom Staniforth, who played for the NSW Waratahs and Brumbies, left for France in 2021 and spoke emotional, fluent French after making his Test debut against the All Blacks last week.

He will come off the bench in Brisbane for a French team also bolstered by the arrival of flyhalf Romain Ntamack.

All three qualified by living in France for five years.

"I played Queensland schoolboys with Moses and haven't seen him since," Wilson smiled.

"He's a big boy and no doubt a handful then obviously Emmanuel Meafou, a Brothers boy and gee whiz, he's a presence on the field.

"But the rest of the team will be a handful too."

AAP

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