"Firstly I'd like to question how many of them are illegal, Wilson said. And to say they're dangerous, they are definitely not. There's no way Joe [Schmidt] will coach a team to be illegal at the breakdown. I think we've had over 2,000 rucks this year and for them to cherrypick a couple of rucks out of it, it's quite amusing. We're pretty excited for the opportunity to go out there and have a really good fair game."
"They have had four months together, we've got four sessions, Borthwick said on Tuesday. Asked if the Wallabies have an advantage in that respect Wilson said: Yeah, I guess so. They want to put that out there as an excuse for them. We've been playing together all year. We've had a lot of footy in a row the continuity is there because we've been playing a lot."
"At England's later media briefing, Harrison insisted Borthwick's meeting with Amashukeli was private. I haven't been involved, he said, after querying the accuracy of the report on the alleged protest to the Georgian referee. Steve has conversations with the referees and I'm not involved in those meetings. I think you can respectfully say those meetings are kept private."
Australia captain Harry Wilson denied that his team uses illegal breakdown tactics and rejected claims that such play compromises player safety. Wilson said coach Joe Schmidt would not instruct illegal breakdown play and called suggestions that a few rucks prove illegality 'quite amusing.' England head coach Steve Borthwick raised concerns about Australian players joining rucks from the side with referee Nika Amashukeli in a pre-match meeting. Wilson suggested England were using limited training time together as an excuse and defended Australian continuity. England scrum coach Tom Harrison said referee meetings are private and that he was not involved.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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