AUSTRALIA coach Robbie Deans is threatening to wield the axe in response to the Wallabies' record 53-8 loss to South Africa on Saturday.
The Australians will play New Zealand in Brisbane on 13 September in a match that will decide the Tri-Nations Championship, and Deans is demanding a better performance.
The New Zealand-born Deans has yet to finalise his team, but has already indic
ated he was considering changing the starting XV in a bid to erase the memories of Saturday's loss.
"It's a performance we're not proud of, but we want to be proud of the next one," he told reporters after the team's arrival at Sydney Airport yesterday. "We are in the fortunate position of having a final, a one-off game where we can turn our season into something.
"It's the end of the beginning essentially and now we have a one-off encounter with everything at stake.
"One thing is for sure, we won't go in underestimating what's ahead of us and the other thing that is good, is I'd much rather go through that pain last week than in the coming weeks."
Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock said the players were still stunned by the magnitude of their defeat, which was Australia's heaviest losing margin against any opponent, but were determined to make amends against New Zealand.
"We have so much to play for next week," Mortlock said. "I think everyone will be absolutely mentally where they need to be, in the right place. Only the group knows the feeling, but you've got to live with it for a while."
The South African Rugby Union, meanwhile, is offering a reward of £720 to find the three men responsible for a racist attack during the match at Ellis Park.
"There were 54,000 people in the stadium enjoying a thrilling Springbok victory but it takes the racist actions of a tiny handful to sour the occasion," said SARU president Oregan Hoskins.
"They will have friends and acquaintances who saw what happened and we urge them to contact our offices so we can take action." The un-named victim told a Johannesburg radio station she was verbally abused by three white men who also prodded her in the head and held her arm behind her back.
"Rugby is committed to rooting out this kind of behaviour and every time even an isolated incident rears its ugly head we shall come down hard on the perpetrators," added Hoskins.
The full article contains 418 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
