Australia will shut up ‘cocky' Lions after Henry Pollock claim
A backlash to Pollock's comments earlier this week risks blowing up on the tourists after the topic erupted on Tuesday ahead of the first Test, with Latham relishing Australia's chance to shut up Andy Farrell's side.
The tourists have won every game since arriving Down Under, leading Pollock to claim a side aspiring to be 'the best Lions team ever' can sweep the series 3-0.
Latham, full-back in the Wallaby team that came from behind to beat a Lions side captained by Martin Johnson in 2001, said the boasts were music to Australian ears.
The World Cup winner said: 'Personally, that fires me up. For me, and I'm sure for every Aussie, it's like, 'OK, righto.. We'll shut you up'. I'm a Queenslander and it's ingrained in us to be underdogs and be able to pull a win out from nothing.
'This [talk] is perfect for us. I've been feeling this now for the last probably three, four weeks while the Lions have been thrashing everyone else and getting cockier and cockier.
'Everything you read, it's about 'how good are we' and 'we're building' and 'this is so great'. It's like, 'Yeah, you keep talking that, you keep believing that'.'
The Lions are red-hot favourites for the series but Latham, who has returned from Chicago where he coaches in Major League Rugby to be at the game, insisted: 'Without a doubt [Australia can win].
'This is what we're built on. This is the Aussie spirit. We're built on being the underdog. We're built on being the outcast. I probably shouldn't say this but we were sent here on a boat and we built something from nothing. We're tough.'
Australian rugby has been a punchbag since Eddie Jones' ill-fated return to coach the Wallabies at the 2023 World Cup led to pool elimination for the first time.
Time and again since they have heard it said they are no match for the best Britain and Ireland can muster, not least when Argentina stuck 67 points on them last summer. The performances of the warm-up acts here have done little to change the narrative after the Wallabies stumbled to a 21-18 victory over Fiji.
But Latham, starting full-back for the Wallabies in the first Brisbane Test 24 years ago, said: 'I've heard it all before. The 'best Lions team to ever come out', Australia's 'got no chance'. We went 1-0 down in '01 and came back to win the next two.
'My heart hopes and wants Australia to do well. We need to be competitive, make sure these games go down to the wire, create heroes for the kids.
'Anything's possible in rugby, that's what I love about this game. Anything can happen. So... yeah, strap yourself in.'
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