Back row the key

"It's a battle we need to win if we're going to be successful," Australian openside flanker Phil Waugh said on Friday. "They're obviously a very experienced forward pack and very experienced backrow and I'm sure they know all the tricks of the trade so for us it's a huge challenge."

While Wilkinson gets a lot of the credit for England's success, it is the responsibility of the backrow to supply him with the possession to shoot for goal.

England's backrow is probably the best in the world and the job of stopping them depends on Waugh, fellow flanker George Smith and number eight David Lyons.

Their roles are slightly different from the English, who play a more traditional mauling game.

The dreadlocked Smith is a specialist openside but has been switched to blindside as part of Australia's strategy to introduce more mobility around the pitch and speed to the breakdown.

BALL CARRIER

Lyons, the biggest of the three, is the chief ball-carrier, shouldering the responsibility of running into the heart of the English defence after Toutai Kefu withdrew with injury.

Loose forwards do not get the same accolades as the backs because most of their work goes unnoticed at the bottom of rucks and mauls.

Winning and retaining possession is only part of the contest at the breakdown, they also need to maintain their discipline to avoid giving away too many penalties within kicking range.

"We'll be aiming to give away as few penalties as possible," said Waugh, one of five players nominated for the International Rugby Board's Player of the Year award. "We know how dangerous Jonny Wilkinson is but all the sides that we've played against have had extremely dangerous goalkickers."

Wallabies' captain George Gregan also identified discipline as the key area, but not only at the breakdown.

"We need to be disciplined in everything we do, not just in terms of giving away penalties," Gregan said. "If we're disciplined in attack and defence we get a lot of confidence from that. Our team really rely on that.

"I think we need to balance our emotions with what we need to do on the field."