They call it the “dark room”.
A place players go in their minds when they feel there is no way out, such is their opposition’s sheer dominance.
And former Wallabies captain Geoff Shaw admitted it would be easy to find playing the All Blacks.
Indeed cynics believe the Wallabies are already there ahead of Saturday night’s Bledisloe clash at Suncorp Stadium after coach Robbie Deans and five-eighth Kurtley Beale claimed New Zealand were “looking unbeatable”.
However, Shaw hoped the Wallabies would see the light – just as his side did back in the 1970s – and snap New Zealand’s remarkable winning run this weekend.
“I’ve been in that situation myself,” he said after being announced along with fellow ex-captain Tony Shaw as the Wallaby Hall of Fame’s latest inductees.
“Sometimes you are in the dark room and you can’t find the door and can’t find the way out.
“I don’t care who you are, it’s fairly daunting and I think all sportsmen would go through that at some stage.”
Asked how he helped lift the Wallabies out of the 1970s doldrums, Geoff Shaw said: “You rely on the guys around you.
“(But) the dominance of a team can be fairly overpowering.
“You get into a situation where you just try to reduce the score.
“Let’s hope the boys don’t end up in that room on the weekend.”
World champions New Zealand are vying for a record 17th straight victory – a 14-month run that stretches back to last year’s Tri-Nations decider in Brisbane.
And Deans is searching for just his fourth win over the All Blacks in 18 trans-Tasman Tests.
Tony Shaw – who played 36 Tests from 1973-82 and captained the Wallabies 15 times – believed the difference on the weekend would be determined by “a couple of inches up the top of the scone”.
“It’s a mental game,” he said.
“Sure we have had difficulties with injuries and combinations but we’ve all had setbacks in our careers and you work through it.
“There needs to a burning desire to win every game – the players have to engender that.
“There’s no doubt that they (New Zealand) have set the standard but I think there is a burning desire (in the Wallabies camp) to be better than the All Blacks.”
But Wallabies assistant coach Nick Scrivener said it may yet be determined by a more physical approach.
“I think that area of the game has served us well. Upping the physical side of things brought us back against Argentina (in their 25-19 win in Rosario),” he said.
“We are not shying away from that.
“We have been tested for a fair while now but this is a resilient group.”
Tony and Geoff Shaw – who played 27 Tests including nine as captain from 1969-79 – will be officially inducted at the John Eales Medal dinner on November 1.
