After another Bledisloe Cup loss to the All Blacks, the Wallabies departed for their tour of the British Isles yesterday with skipper Rocky Elsom urging his troops to go ''hell for leather'' in pursuit of rugby history.
Elsom identified living in the moment as the key to a triumphant sweep of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
He said the Wallabies must ignore the hype surrounding the first grand slam attempt in a quarter of century the first in the professional era to have any hope of emulating the feats of the Alan Jones-coached, Andrew Slack-captained, Mark Ella-inspired 1984 Australian side.
''We're in a position where we really need to look at just the next team and the challenges that go with it,'' he said as the Wallabies digested their seventh consecutive loss to the All Blacks, a 32-19 defeat in Tokyo on Saturday night.
''We can't really afford to look at how we build and about preparing guys for four matches. We've just got to go hell for leather at each match. You can't take anyone for granted because they'll be absolutely gunning for us.''
Coach Robbie Deans is excited about his side's ''fantastic opportunity'', which begins on Sunday morning against old foes England.
''It's going to be a ripper. There's any amount of history to look at. The nature of that contest will be brutal.''
The Wallabies kick off their British campaign with a mid-week fixture against Gloucester on Wednesday. AAP