KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Reborn Wallaby prop Matt Dunning is bracing himself for a benchmark test against "million dollar man" Carl Hayman in Saturday week's Tri-Nations rugby test against New Zealand in Melbourne.
Dunning, who was dropped from the Wallabies squad after Australia's poor scrum performances on their 2005 tour of Europe, underlined his tremendous improvement since then with an acclaimed career-best effort against the Springboks in Cape Town last Sunday (NZ time).
He more than held his own in the scrummaging and was dynamic in the loose and earned the praise of coach John Connolly.
Dunning attributed his improved form this season to the coaching on Connolly and his support team of Michael Foley and Alex Evans, a new mental outlook and a few extra kilos of weight.
While the Waratahs prop today regarded his performance against the powerful South African pack as the best of his international career, he felt the real benchmark of his form would be provided by Hayman, the All Balcks' scrum cornerstone.
"I played well (last weekend), but there's still a lot to improve on, so I guess I'm just really watching tapes now of Carl Hayman," Dunning said today.
"If I get picked in the game in Melbourne he will be the next challenge and he is world class, he's the best, so we'll be able to see how good I am after that."
While Dunning performed well against Hayman in a recent Super 14 match, the NSW prop said scrummaging was invariably more intense at Test level.
Hayman could well be playing his final test in Australia, as he will join English club Newcastle on a lucrative three-year contract following the World Cup.
"Carl Hayman is the million dollar man mate, it's good to see him making money because he deserves it, he's an excellent player," Dunning said.
He said he regarded the All Blacks scrum as the best in the world, though he stressed he hadn't seen a lot of northern hemisphere rugby in recent months.
Dunning said the Australian forwards would have a lot of work to do over the next two weeks before meeting New Zealand.
He described some of the All Blacks scrum work in their recent test series against France as "scary" and said he still had some further improvement to make over the next two weeks, during which he would work on "little technical things".
- AAP
