AUSTRALIA'S Greg Inglis has foreshadowed a torrid test of high balls for New Zealand's Lance Hohaia in Saturday night's World Cup decider after the fullback was exposed by England in last weekend's semi-final.
As the Kangaroos' build-up continued to splutter slightly, with skipper Darren Lockyer bed-ridden yesterday with a virus, Inglis said the Australians would "exploit" the potential weakness at the back of the Kiwis line-up.
Hohaia, who is relatively inexperienced in the position, was left scrambling on one notable occasion after a Danny McGuire bomb was fumbled, which led to an England try.
The Australians were watching from their hotel rooms in Sydney, with Inglis saying: "We've seen that. There's a few mistakes in him underneath the high ball - their wingers as well. We'll exploit that, use it to our advantage."
Hohaia's problems under the high ball were pinpointed by coach Ricky Stuart during an Australian video session yesterday.
"Ricky's spoken about it," Inglis said. "We've just got to wait and see what comes out of that on Saturday night. But we all noticed it [last Saturday night]. We were sitting in our rooms watching it on the night. I'm pretty sure all the boys would have noticed it."
Inglis, who has been known to put up some high balls in the past, said Lockyer and halfback Johnathan Thurston would be more likely to be doing the kicking at Suncorp Stadium. "I'll probably be on the end of it chasing it," the centre said.
New Zealand winger Manu Vatuvei, who has been the subject of ritual humiliation in the past over his handling skills, is much improved in that area but he still expected the Australians to target him and Hohaia.
"They still try and test me," Vatuvei said. "But anything can happen. It's going to be a full-on game. Everything's going to come out in this game."
The Kangaroos trained yesterday with lock Paul Gallen (corked thigh) and winger Brent Tate (hip flexor) only being put through rehab work. Lockyer trained, but then stayed at his hotel due to illness while the rest of his teammates visited storm-ravaged The Gap State High School.
Tate had scans yesterday and, like Gallen, will be given until kick-off to prove his fitness. Both were named in an unchanged squad yesterday.
Inglis denied the disrupted preparation would hamper the side. "Obviously, we'd like to have them two blokes, 'Tatey' and 'Gal', out there," he said.
"If they miss out, it's unfortunate - they've played every game of the tournament, and to miss out on the final, I can't imagine it, it would be devastating."
Prop Steve Price said: "Fingers crossed [Tate] will be right. I know how much it means to him - it's the first time he's played every game of the season, so it'd be disappointing for him to miss the last game of the year.
"But whatever happens, it'll be in the best interests of the team. It's not the greatest situation for him to be in but he's very professional and he's working hard."
The students from Brisbane affected by the storms of this week were given a treat when the New Zealand side performed an impromptu haka for them, however the Australians are expecting them to be far less accomodating on Saturday night.
Craig Fitzgibbon, given something of a representative reprieve this year, said the Australians were being heavily motivated by a fear of failure. "Obviously, it's a big fear," he said.
"I was part of that 2005 Tri-Nations team that was beaten. You don't want to be part of that team … and certainly it'll never be forgotten if we go out there and don't play well on the weekend.
"Every time you play for Australia you're defending something. You hold that stigma - you don't want to be that team that loses. We did in '05, and it hurt a lot. We don't want to be that team again.
"Every time you play in the green and gold, there's a standard that you have to uphold - the players before us and the players over the last 100 years who've played for Australia have set that standard, and they've set it really bloody high." RLWC FINAL AUSTRALIA: Billy Slater; Joel Monaghan, Greg Inglis, Israel Folau, Brent Tate; Darren Lockyer (c), Johnathan Thurston; Petero Civoniceva, Cam Smith, Steve Price, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Laffranchi, Paul Gallen. Interchange: Karmichael Hunt, Craig Fitzgibbon, Anthony Tupou, Brent Kite. NEW ZEALAND: Lance Hohaia; Sam Perrett, Simon Mannering, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei; Benji Marshall, Nathan Fien; Nathan Cayless (c), Thomas Leuluai, Adam Blair, David Fa'alogo, Bronson Harrison, Jeremy Smith. Interchange: Issac Luke, Greg Eastwood, Sam Rapira, Sika Manu.