Australia coach Eddie Jones insists his team are in pole position in the race for the Tri-Nations title following their 23-18 win over New Zealand. The Wallabies will play the last game of the tournament in South Africa knowing what to do after the Springboks and All Blacks meet a week earlier.
"If we've got any positive history in South Africa it's in Durban," he said.
"And we can go there with a fair bit of confidence knowing we'll have a chance of winning the Tri-Nations."
All three teams can still claim the title, and while conceding "it's a good position to be in", Jones fully expects to be tested by a resurgent South African team.
"While home ground advantage has been there so far the next two games might go against that trend," he said.
"South Africa will be hard to beat, but New Zealand traditionally play well in Johannesburg, and New Zealand sides tend to play well at altitude."
Coach Graham Henry will have to lift his All Blacks side if they are to bounce back from their first defeat under his charge on their security threatened trip. Henry was left smarting from a defeat that he felt hinged on the sin-binning of lock Ali Williams, a 10-minute spell that included Australia's match-winning try from Lote Tuqiri.
"That was the winning of the game during that period of time," he said.
"We were clearly second, Australia always looked like scoring tries more often than we did."
MMIX
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