KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - The World Cup will be won by the team who deal best with refereeing interpretations - and the Wallabies are ready for whichever way the officials go, says champion fullback Chris Latham.
Latham, who has played only 36 minutes of test rugby this year after a knee reconstruction, said the sport's big guns would use the pool games to study how the speed of matches would be affected by policing of the crucial breakdown area.
"I think the best team to adapt to those interpretations will probably go a long way to winning it," he said yesterday.
Australia were prepared for either an attack or defence-dominated tournament, Latham said.
"If it becomes a defensive World Cup, we've done a lot of work on that and our patterns and principles are down-pat and we're very confident in that area.
"If it becomes an attacking style of rugby required, we've got the names on the paper there to do that type of job. So either/or, we're looking very confident."
Latham's confidence extends to rubbishing talk of New Zealand being shoo-ins for the world title.
The Queenslander believes the Wallabies' buildup will ensure the side peak at the right time.
"This time last year there was a lot of talk about certain teams being certainties to win the World Cup and how little chance we had," he said.
"We know as a team that what you're doing and what you're believing in is the right direction.
"Now that we're getting down close to the business end, you're starting to see the teams that may have been written off a year ago are starting to come out and starting to perform."
Wallaby prop Guy Shepherdson is confident his injured knee will be right for Australia's opening match.
The injury has stopped him from training this week.
Shepherdson played through the final Tri-Nations test against New Zealand with the wear-and-tear injury to his right knee and had an arthroscopy examination three weeks ago.
The knee became swollen last week and he will not train with the Wallabies again before their departure on Thursday for a pre-World Cup camp in Portugal.
"It blew up a little bit, so [the Wallabies' physician] Dr Martin Raftery decided to take the conservative approach and gave me until Portugal before I need to run again," said Shepherdson, who has played 14 tests.
"They're reasonably happy with how it's going. I just think they don't want to risk it any more than they have to at the moment.
"I'm concerned I am not 100 per cent going into a World Cup, but that's just part of what you've got to do with all-year-round rugby."
The Wallabies open their World Cup campaign against Japan on September 9.
Shepherdson has become an integral part of their improved scrum, cementing the tighthead position and playing in six of the side's seven tests this year.
Queensland's Rodney Blake has joined the squad in Sydney as a shadow squad member, and is training with them this week.
- AAP
