The Wallabies aim to rattle New Zealand’s rookie playmaker, fourth-choice No.10 Tom Taylor, in his Test debut on Saturday night for a Bledisloe Cup equaliser.
A bolter at five-eighth for the second trans-Tasman clash, Taylor has played just one pre-season game at No.10 this year but has the huge responsibility to lead the All Blacks around Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.
Injuries to Dan Carter, Aaron Cruden and Beauden Barrett have thrust the 24-year-old into the playmaking hot seat after specialising at inside centre for the Crusaders in Super Rugby.
Wallabies vice-captain Will Genia felt Taylor deserved his surprise call-up but Australia would do all they could to unsettle the debutant to trigger a shaky All Blacks performance.
“There’s no doubt about it; we have to,” Genia said.
“He has only played 12 so from our point of view we want to put as much pressure on him as we can and see how he deals with it.
“We’ll see how he copes with the decision-making and with controlling their game.”
It’s a sign of New Zealand’s depth that they can be without their three best five-eighths but still be strong favourites to back-up their 47-29 win in Sydney with another victory to clinch the Bledisloe Cup for an 11th straight year.
Wallabies skipper James Horwill harked back to the 2011 World Cup, when the All Blacks were missing Carter and Colin Slade before Cruden was also injured early in the final but still beat France with Stephen Donald landing the match-winning penalty.
“That’s a perfect example,” Horwill said. “(New Zealand) were down to the fourth or fifth five-eighth and they still won the World Cup.
“A guy on debut, in a playmaking position, you always have to test out but he wouldn’t be there if he wasn’t good enough.”
The Wallabies’ own rookie five-eighth, Matt Toomua, struggled at times in his debut last week but Genia predicted a far more assured display from his halves partner.
“He’ll be a lot more confident having that one game under his belt,” the halfback said.