Wallabies hit back at 'amusing' England allegations

Australia captain Harry Wilson has rejected a claim made on the eve of their clash with England that the Wallabies use illegal breakdown tactics.

A report states that England head coach Steve Borthwick highlighted Australia’s alleged ploy of deliberately entering rucks from the side when he met referee Nika Amashukeli ahead of Saturday’s Allianz Stadium showdown.

Play welfare concerns were also raised over the tourists’ approach to clear-outs.

“Firstly, I’d like to question how many are illegal. And to say that they are dangerous – they are definitely not,” Wilson said.

“There’s no way (Australia head coach) Joe Schmidt would coach a team to be illegal at the breakdown.

“I think we’ve had over 2,000 rucks this year and for them to cherry-pick a couple is quite amusing.

“When a team is playing 10 or 11 Tests, any team would have some from the side. We think we are quite good at our attacking breakdown.

“We are pretty excited for the opportunity to go out there and have a fair game.”

England are odds-on favourites to make a winning start to their autumn series but Wilson insists Australia are accustomed to being written off.

The Wallabies may be missing James O’Connor, Len Ikitau, Tom Hooper and Will Skelton due to the match falling outside the international window, but they have a recent history of registering comeback wins against the odds, including at Twickenham 12 months ago.

“There haven’t been many games since I’ve been captain where we have been the favourites,” Wilson said.

“We are always the outsiders and not many people back us. As a group, we enjoy that.

“We’re so internally focused on improving and making sure preparation is right so that we believe in ourselves and believe in each other to do the job.

“Last year this game was a big turning point for us as a group, which really made us believe that on our day we can beat anybody in the world.”

England declined to confirm if they had brought Australia’s alleged illegal breakdown tactics to the match officials’ attention.

“Steve Borthwick has conversations with the referees and I’m not involved in those meetings. You can respectfully say those meetings are kept private,” scrum coach Tom Harrison said.