Wallabies must beat England: Elsom

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Wallabies skipper Rocky Elsom says losing to depleted England doesn't bear thinking about as Australian rugby's international credibility goes on the line at Twickenham on Saturday.

Never mind a grand slam sweep, the Wallabies are under extraordinary pressure to deliver on the first leg after a dire run of six defeats from their past seven Tests.

For one reason or another, the Wallabies are the most maligned national sporting team in Australia and Elsom needs no reminding that success-starved fans simply won't cop another second-best result - especially against a hopelessly weak England outfit.

"I certainly wouldn't like the idea of us losing on the weekend," Elsom said on Wednesday.

"Yeah, it's a massive, massive game for us."

Only the most fair-minded neutrals acknowledge the fact that the Wallabies are the lone international team to have beaten the world champion Springboks in 2009 and that all six of Australia's defeats this season have come at the hand's of the world's top two ranked sides.

Elsom, though, accepts that perception is reality and the reality is the Wallabies risk becoming the butt of jokes if they are unable to kick off their grand slam quest with a commanding victory over an England outfit relying on Jonny Wilkinson and little else.

As it is, the British and Irish already consider it preposterous that the Wallabies should even entertain the idea of upstaging the four home nations on successive weekends this month.

The Wallabies publicly admit no such grandiose expectations and Elsom, never one to pull punches, says his under-achieving side will be happy enough just to restore some order and confidence with success over the seventh-ranked English.

"It's pretty big for us. We were absolutely stinging for a win last weekend and that didn't come," Elsom said, conceding the Wallabies succumbed to all-too-familiar failings in last Saturday's demoralising 32-19 loss to the All Blacks in Tokyo.

"Coming into the game there was probably a little bit of anxiety around the fact that we hadn't been able to notch one up against them (this year)," Elsom said.

"But, really, we had been a big part of the reason (for that) by not being able to execute the way we wanted to, which probably happened again."

Hence the Wallabies have spent this week getting their own shop sorted rather than fretting over how their next opponents may look to exploit them.

"Thinking about England probably wouldn't be at the top of our list just because we've got our own issues to worry about," Elsom said.

"New Zealand are no champions in the lineout area but they sort of exposed us a little bit just for the fact that our drill wasn't sharp enough.

"I think our scrum's going okay, but you've got to be able to produce that week in, week out.

"So we probably have to look a bit more at ourselves than England."