Uruguay have moved into phase two of their World Cup campaign with a vow to make life as uncomfortable as possible for the Wallabies.
The darlings of the opening week courtesy of their 30-27 upset of Fiji in Kamaishi, Los Teros crashed back to reality with a 33-7 loss to Georgia.
With just two tier one opponents remaining – Australia in Oita on Saturday and Wales next week – before a likely group exit, they’ve recalibrated their approach.
Assistant coach Joaquim Pastore said pride and a desire to showcase their improvements against strong opposition was driving his team.
At the last World Cup they were thrashed 65-3 by the Wallabies in Birmingham, a result that stings former international back Pastore because of the progress he believes they’ve made.
“We came to this World Cup to shock the world,” he told journalists on Friday.
“After Fiji we were very happy. After the Georgia match, we have to (rediscover) the height of this team.
“We want to show the rest of the world our rugby has developed enough to be competitive against teams such as Australia and Wales.”
Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said Uruguay have developed a distinct style which they’ve reviewed as closely as if they were playing a powerhouse nation.
“Breakdown, they’ll come hard there and they have really good kicking halves, they kick a lot and are good at contesting those areas,” Hooper said.
“Also, physically, particularly in the Fiji game, they were very strong.”
Meanwhile, Uruguay confirmed they would continue to be powered by a traditional South American drink, called mate, after several players consumed it during their final training run on Friday.
Outside back Agustin Della Corte revealed they had brought 200kg of the caffeine-infused drink’s ingredients with them to Japan to ensure they didn’t run short on it’s energy-inducing qualities.