Monday 11 May 2009

Deans : Australia not ready to win World Cup,

Despite breakthrough wins on foreign shores last year, Australia coach Robbie Deans does not believe the current Wallabies squad are ready to win a World Cup. With the 2011 World Cup finals on the horizon, the soft-spoken New Zealander said the Wallabies had proven they could beat the best, but still needed to master their emotions to win week in, week out. "We feel that we tend to chase our emotions a little bit and respond to the two imposters if you like -- as Roosevelt would suggest -- success and failure," Deans told Reuters on Monday. "We want to master the skill and ability of concentrating on what's important all the time, and not being distracted by emotion." Deans, who joined the Wallabies almost a year ago, guided the team to stirring wins over England, Ireland and France during their northern hemisphere tour last year, but were denied a clean sweep by Wales. Rousing victories over South Africa and New Zealand during the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup tournaments were invariably followed by thrashings the following week. Deans said the current side would struggle to win a World Cup. "Not right now, I don't think, but that's where we would like to get to -- to know on any given day we're capable of winning any game we're in regardless of who is the opponent.""What is evident, as selectors we're going to have make some hard decisions," Deans told reporters at a news conference.

source:www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/8500350

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