Australia will arrive in London, for the start of their grand slam quest, with the label of being a 'soft target' for the four Home Unions of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom, discussing his team's performance in their 19-32 defeat against the All Blacks in Tokyo at the weekend, admitted their next opponent, England, will treat Australia as the easiest of the Southern Hemisphere teams.

In fact Elsom hinted that his team would indeed have trouble in emulating the feats of the 1984 Australian grand slam team.

A frustrated Elsom suggested the Aussies did as well as they could in Tokyo, but admitted they will need to raise the bar considerably in the weeks to come.

''I couldn't fault the guys for their effort and their intensity, but it wasn't good enough. And that's a big problem,'' Elsom said.

''You've got to win. There is a reason why the All Blacks won the [Bledisloe Cup] series 4-0. We can say whatever we like about how we're going, but you only really know from our performances. And as much good as there was [in Tokyo], it was alongside a few others that in the end did not go our way.

''I was very frustrated about the it because that game opened up more than any other this year, but we were unable to take advantage of it.

"We have at least England now to think about, but they'll be looking at us as the southern hemisphere team they'll be most likely to knock off.''

He said the Wallabies must ignore the hype surrounding the first grand slam attempt in a quarter of century - the first in the professional era.

"We're in a position where we really need to look at just the next team and the challenges that go with it," Elsom said.

"We can't really afford to look at how we build and about preparing guys for four matches. We've just got to go hell for leather at each match.

"You can't take anyone for granted because they'll be absolutely gunning for us.

''We're a young side and don't have the luxury of resting anyone. We also cannot take any opponent for granted because they will be absolutely gunning for us. We know this tour will only be special if we do well. But what we're trying to do is not think about the big thing, as you can waste a lot of energy on that.

"Things often don't always go your way and you can't worry about that. We have to really knuckle down and work on each opponent as they come up.''

Coach Robbie Deans is excited about his side's "fantastic opportunity", which begins on Saturday with a blockbuster battle against old foes England at Twickenham.

"It's going to be a ripper," Deans said. "There's any amount of history to look at.

"The nature of that contest will be brutal. You've got two sides that are trying to galvanise their position in world rugby and we're playing at their bastion."

365

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