Australia may be on a seven-match losing streak against New Zealand and finished last in the Tri-Nations, but they still fancy themselves to beat an England team regarded as "hopelessly weak", when the two countries meet at Twickenham on Saturday.

New Wallaby captain Rocky Elsom, who knows his country's international credibility is on the line on Saturday, said losing to depleted England doesn't bear thinking about.

There is the small matter of chasing a grand slam - victory over the four Home Unions of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales on successive weekends - but for Elsom and his charges it is more about ending a dire run of six defeats from their past seven Tests.

"I certainly wouldn't like the idea of us losing on the weekend," Elsom told AAP.

"Yeah, it's a massive, massive game for us."

Even though Australia do boast a win over the World Cup champion Springboks, and their last six defeats have all been at the hands of the two top-ranked teams, New Zealand and South Africa, the Wallabies are aware of the consequences of another defeat.

Elsom accepts that the Wallabies risk becoming the butt of jokes if they are unable to kick off their grand slam quest with a commanding victory over an England outfit they feel rely on Jonny Wilkinson and little else.

Elsom, never one to pull punches, says his under-achieving side will be happy enough just to restore some order and confidence with success over the seventh-ranked English.

"It's pretty big for us. We were absolutely stinging for a win last weekend and that didn't come," Elsom told AAP, conceding the Wallabies succumbed to all-too-familiar failings in last Saturday's demoralising 19-32 loss to the All Blacks in Tokyo.

"Coming into the game there was probably a little bit of anxiety around the fact that we hadn't been able to notch one up against them (this year)," Elsom said.

"But, really, we had been a big part of the reason [for that] by not being able to execute the way we wanted to, which probably happened again."

Hence the Wallabies have spent this week getting their own shop sorted rather than fretting over how their next opponents may look to exploit them.

"Thinking about England probably wouldn't be at the top of our list just because we've got our own issues to worry about," Elsom said.

"New Zealand are no champions in the line-out area but they sort of exposed us a little bit just for the fact that our drill wasn't sharp enough.

"I think our scrum's going okay, but you've got to be able to produce that week in, week out.

"So we probably have to look a bit more at ourselves than England."

It is not just Elsom who feels victory over England is non-negotiable.

Former Wallaby World Cup-winning captain John Eales believes Australia are capable of completing a grand slam, but warned that losing against England could spell disaster.

Eales believes the current Australian team has the potential to emulate the 1984 squad that completed a grand slam of victories.

"I'm an optimist, I always was when I played and believed we could win every game that we played and I still believe the Wallabies can win every game that they play," Eales told AAP.

"If we can do really well on this tour I think we're in great shape actually and much better than what most people think.

"Of course it's not going to be easy... England this week [on Saturday], they're not at full strength, but England at Twickenham are always hard, and I think Wales and Ireland in particular are going to be big challenges for us."

Eales believed the key for the Wallabies was setting the tone with a strong win at Twickenham, but he feared a loss could plunge Australia's confidence to dangerous levels and make for a long tour.

"It's so important," Eales said.

"It would be a big, big dampener, even more than losing [in Tokyo] last week.

"It would be a big dampener not to win this week so there is a fair bit of pressure on them."