Reuters:  A Wallabies team nursing injured pride will hope for more discipline from a re-jigged forward pack and some sympathy from the referee as they bid to square the series against a confident England in Melbourne on Saturday.

Australia’s 39-28 defeat in the Brisbane opener was just their fourth to England on home soil and first at Lang Park, where the tourists piled on a record points tally against the team that dumped them out of their own World Cup last year.

Perhaps most aggrieving for Wallabies coach Michael Cheika was the manner of the loss, his side having been knocked off its game by England’s up-front aggression after dominating the opening half hour.

The Six Nations champions’ belligerence saw their forwards restore their traditional dominance in the scrum, leading to a string of penalties from French referee Romain Poite.

Owen Farrell’s unerring boot did the rest as England secured a seventh straight win under coach Eddie Jones and a chance to win their first test series in Australia at Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium.

Cheika paid ample credit to the tourists but will hope his revamped front row gets a better hearing at scrum-time from South African referee Craig Joubert, whose interpretations could be critical to the outcome.

The Australia coach is not leaving anything to chance, however, having dumped loosehead prop Scott Sio from the matchday squad after he was schooled by England’s Dan Cole and ended up in the sin-bin at Lang Park.

James Slipper replaces him, with tighthead Greg Holmes also demoted to the bench in favour of another veteran in Sekope Kepu, who would have started in Brisbane had he not returned from France late.

Jones warned his players to beware the Australian team that has its back to the wall and Cheika was also relishing the challenge, which has been made stiffer by the loss of loose forward David Pocock to injury for the series.

“I love being in this situation,” Cheika said. “I know that sounds crazy, but we’re 1-0 down and in a scrap and I want my players to enjoy that, too. That’s what Aussies are like.”

Sean McMahon, the latest in a long line of top quality Australian openside flankers, replaces Pocock at number eight in a calculated gamble that his mobility and energy will make up for his lack of heft.

A “gut” decision by Jones to replace centre Luther Burrell with flyhalf George Ford after 30 minutes in Brisbane proved a master stroke as his team worked their way back into the game.

Jones has decided to stick with that winning combination, with Ford to start at flyhalf and Farrell at inside centre in one of only two changes to his starting line-up.

The other saw Jack Nowell, an ever present in the Six Nations grand slam side, restored to the left wing in place of Marland Yarde.

All Blacks wary of wounded Welshmen

Wellington (Reuters): All Blacks coach Steve Hansen knows better than most how a wounded Wales side can react and it was making him wary as he prepared the world champions for what could be a series-clinching test on Saturday.

Hansen spent two years with Wales before joining the All Blacks in 2004 and had no doubt how the tourists would be feeling after losing last weekend’s first test 39-21 before the Waikato Chiefs crushed their midweek side 40-7 on Tuesday.

“They will be pissed off,” Hansen told reporters on Thursday. “When you’re pissed off, it doesn’t take much to get your mental side of your game right.

“The mental side of their game will be fixed up because of the game on Tuesday won’t it? They’ll front up in a big way on Saturday.”

While Hansen did not need reminding of the backlash his players could expect from 23 fire-breathing Welshman in Wellington on Saturday, Wales inside centre Jamie Roberts underlined what was required from the men in red.

“Coming off Tuesday we owe the jersey a game,” said Roberts, who came off the bench in the Chiefs match.

“We let the jersey down being part of that squad. We owe the jersey a performance and certainly the Welsh supporters a performance.”

The long-suffering Welsh supporters, who last celebrated a victory over the All Blacks in 1953, should have plenty to be happy about despite the lack of depth exposed by the Hamilton rout.

During the first test at Eden Park, the visitors were in the match for 60 minutes, only being run over by the All Blacks bench in the final quarter.

“They’re just relentless and they keep coming at you,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said.

“We have to have a mindset to keep playing for 80 minutes. For those players that are out there at the 60-65 minute mark, they need to keep putting them under pressure.”

They could do that, Roberts said, by hanging onto the ball, shutting down New Zealand’s counter-attack and ensuring that they did not make mistakes inside their own half.

Failure to do so and the All Blacks, who have made two changes to their matchday squad from the Auckland test, should seal the series with the Dunedin match to spare.

Hansen, though, was still hammering home the message that a wounded Welshman is a dangerous Welshman.

“They’re a good team,” he said. “They’re hurting and that’s what makes them dangerous.”