But despite arriving down under on the back of four successive World Cup warm-up defeats Murphy is confident that they can challenge this year’s Tri Nations champions.

"It feels like there's a big performance in the team," the Leicester captain said.

"We have some fantastically talented players, some guys who can play really good rugby. We can take it on another gear or two against Australia.

"We'll be up against it as we're playing one of the best sides in the world, but there's the belief that we can win this. The guys are all confident."

"The Australian backline are awesome across the board. Australian rugby for many years has produced fantastic backs.

"They're tremendously talented and are great at breaking teams down. They're not a bad bunch to boot either, so they're thoroughly unlikeable!

"They're probably the most potent attacking backline in the world. They have pace, power and are intelligent players."