Wallabies eye Grand Slam

Adam Ashley-Cooper has targeted a seven-match whitewash for Australia this autumn. [more]

Wallabies eye Grand Slam

Adam Ashley-Cooper has targeted a seven-match whitewash for Australia this autumn.

The Wallabies face Tri-Nations champions New Zealand in Hong Kong on the way to Europe and will be looking to end a 10-match losing streak againt their southern-hemisphere rivals and then have tests against Wales, England, Italy and France lined-up.

And the Brumbies utility back believes his side are more than capable of completing their tour un-defeated.

"I think in the back of everyone's mind that (an unbeaten tour) is what everyone wants to achieve," said Ashley-Cooper.

"We haven't spoken about it but I'm sure everyone's thinking about it, because how good would an unbeaten tour be."

"It's an important tour for all of us, not only individually for selection but collectively as a team because it's our last time that we're probably together this year before a World Cup year, and that's important to us."

"Obviously you can't get too far ahead of yourselves and first is Hong Kong … and (beating the All Blacks) is our main focus," he said.

"We want to get that win, it's very important to us."

"Leading in to next year it's very, very important. And it'd just get the ball back, it'd get things rolling. We have a lot of confidence and we do have a lot of belief, but psychologically against the All Blacks a win would mean a lot."

"We're very confident, training's been great. We've had a couple of weeks of some pretty heavy loaded camps and we've got through a lot of work."

Australia will also face club heavyweights Leicester and Munster in mid-week fixtures on the six-week tour. Their first test on European soil is against Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday 6 November.

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