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Australia head coach Tim Sheens has put his faith in his forwards ahead of the Four Nations final against New Zealand at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday.
The Kangaroos head into the match with a number of stars absent and with a further half-dozen struck down by a virus.
Sheens expects the majority of the latter group to shake off their issues in time for the game, but many observers believe this could be the Kiwis' chance to land silverware following defeat to the Aussies in last year's World Cup final.
"We've changed the middle around a little, we've now got the more senior guys playing back row to start the game, and a younger front row. I'm confident in what we have and interested to see what they're capable of," said Sheens, who is rated as one of the Kangaroos' best ever coaches following last year's exploits.
"We've just got to maintain that rotation and maintain the rage in the forwards, and not clock off. Occasionally we've clocked off in the middle and got caught, and we had our pants pulled down a couple of times and that's disappointing."
And Sheens was also full of praise when asked about the threat the Kiwis will pose.
"They've won three games, and they've won tough," he said.
"Last week in particular I was impressed because England needed to win desperately, and put everything to them and the Kiwis came through that really well."
2014 Four Nations final - 20:45 (NZT)
New Zealand:1-Peta Hiku, 2-Jason Nightingale, 3-Shaun Kenny-Dowall, 4-Dean Whare, 5-Manu Vatuvei, 6-Kieran Foran, 7-Shaun Johnson, 8-Jesse Bromwich, 9-Issac Luke, 10-Adam Blair, 11-Simon Mannering (c), 12-Kevin Proctor, 13-Jason Taumalolo.
Interchange: 14-Lewis Brown, 15-Greg Eastwood, 16-Martin Taupau, 17-Tohu Harris, 18-Gerard Beale, Bodene Thompson (two to be omitted).
Australia:1. Greg Inglis, 2. Josh Mansour, 3. Michael Jennings, 4. Dylan Walker, 5. Sione Mata'utia, 6. Daly Cherry-Evans, 7. Cooper Cronk, 8. Aaron Woods, 9. Cameron Smith (c), 10. Josh Papalii, 11. Sam Thaiday, 12. Greg Bird, 13. Corey Parker.
Interchange: 14. Boyd Cordner, 15. Robbie Farah, 16. Aidan Guerra, 17. Ryan Hoffman, 18. Ben Hunt, 19. Josh Jackson, 20. David Klemmer (three to be omitted).
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