Rugby: Wallabies look to heap more misery on All Blacks lineout

Lock Mark Chisholm will call the lineouts for the Wallabies against the All Blacks on Saturday. Photo / Getty Images

He predicted the Wallabies were on the verge of "something great" before their Springboks rugby upset, now lock Mark Chisholm reckons they can compound the All Blacks' lineout misery.

Chisholm will call the Wallabies' throws in Saturday's Tri-Nations test in Wellington, and with James Horwill and Rocky Elsom will try to disrupt the All Blacks in the pivotal contest for possession.

He watched another Victor Matfield masterclass in Hamilton on Saturday when the All Blacks fell apart in the first half, and felt the Wallabies had done enough homework to follow the Boks' lead.

"I think we can. We're training that way and with the amount of reviewing we do of everything, not only against the All Blacks, there's a possibility on the night that everything will come together and we can assert the same dominance," Chisholm said after he was confirmed in an unchanged Wallabies 15 from their 21-6 win over the Boks.

Still, Chisholm felt the biggest issue was a psychological one for the All Blacks against Matfield and Bakkies Botha.

The Wallabies had also found life tough against them this year, and the transtasman lineout battle was relatively even in the All Blacks' 19-18 win in Sydney last month.

"They played the best lineout in world rugby with Victor and Bakkies, so confidence coming out of that sort of game can go either way; wipe the slate clean or start to panic, and they're not the team to panic.

"There's a lot of things that go on unnoticed to the viewer's eye, and certainly Victor has an uncanny way of disrupting the lineouts. We took some of it on board and some of it we've worked around."

But if the All Blacks' lineout was looking shaky, their scrum was getting all the plaudits from the Wallabies who were scheduled to fly to Wellington today.

Prop Benn Robinson, perhaps still mindful of loosehead Tony Woodcock's demolition of Al Baxter in the All Blacks' one-point win last month, said the home scrum remained the toughest.

"To play the Kiwis at home, it's a whole new ball game, they are the best scrum in the world at the moment," Robinson said.

Last time the Wallabies visited New Zealand, Baxter was also penalised heavily by South African referee Craig Joubert who has the whistle on Saturday.

Baxter was replaced by Ben Alexander for the Springboks test, with Tatafu Polota-Nau making up an inexperienced front three who shone in the Brisbane victory.

Robinson hoped inexperience wouldn't count against them, and said the key was to adjust quickly to Joubert's calls.

"Experience plays a big part in it, especially against the Kiwis, we're still a fairly new front row combination," Robinson said.

"Benny's (Alexander) only in his third or fourth start, and he's got a big challenge there with Woodcock playing so many games, he's been on top of his game for a long time now."

- NZPA