Wallabies to continue expressive play

Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie says there will be no fundamental changes to his side's playing style on the five-match Spring Tour.

Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie

Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie says there will be no fundamental changes to his side's playing style. (AAP)

Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie says his side will continue to express themselves on the Spring Tour despite winning just two of seven games since revamping their style.

The Wallabies fly back into Sydney on Sunday after a 41-33 loss to the All Blacks in the third Bledisloe Cup Test in Dunedin on Saturday night.

The players will have until Friday off before they embark on the five-match, five-week Spring Tour of Europe that kicks off against England at Twickenham on November 2.

McKenzie has encouraged the Wallabies to aim for a more-expansive style since taking over from Robbie Deans in July - yet teething problems are still apparent as the new combinations continue to gel.

Their two wins in the Rugby Championship were against world No.10 Argentina, while South Africa and New Zealand each won both of their two encounters against Australia convincingly.

Yet McKenzie said he had good players and was confident they would continue to mature on the international stage.

"The players are really enjoying the way they're going about it. Sure, we want to get better outcomes on the scoreboard," he said after the eight-point loss to the All Blacks.

"Fundamentally, we're not going to depart from the fact that we want to express ourselves."

The former Queensland Reds' coach cited backline players such as Matt Toomua, Tevita Kuridrani and Bernard Foley as talents who were improving every match.

"We've now got bench players of the likes of Foley coming into the game and making things happen and that's what we want - 23 guys contributing to a thoughtful and skilful (game plan)," he said.

McKenzie said despite the losses, there were sectors of the Wallabies' game where they had matched the world champions - but they still had work to do before they were on a level pegging with the benchmark in world rugby.

"Each time we've played them, the gaps have gotten less on the scoreboard and we've scored more tries (than before)," McKenzie said.

"But you can't get away from the fact that they're really good at putting you under pressure and we haven't dealt with that pressure for long enough."

Despite the below par 2-5 record so far this year, Wallabies skipper James Horwill said his side would travel to Europe aiming to win every game.

"That's our thought process. And now we move on to our first game, England, and we'll deal with who's after that after that first game," he said.


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Source: AAP


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