MELBOURNE: England have already sewn up their breakthrough series win over Australia but the final match in Sydney on Saturday should deliver more fire than a typical dead rubber.
England coach Eddie Jones has refused to make it easy for the hosts to cobble a face-saving win by declining to tinker with the side that sealed the series 2-0 in Melbourne with an emphatic 23-7 victory.
For the Wallabies' part, there is far more than pride on the line in avoiding another defeat to England.
Few things sting worse for an Australian team than losing to the English but a series whitewash completed in the country's rugby heartland would be a new level of humiliation for coach Michael Cheika.
Jones has hogged the media spotlight from his former team mate Cheika, and this week held court at Coogee Oval, putting England through their paces at the same beach-side ground where the pair used to train for renowned club Randwick.
It was a pre-planned stop on the England itinerary but the symbolism of Jones as victor in the 'Randwick battle' was hard to ignore.
The tourists' dominance has robbed the series of a dramatic decider, but Jones has pumped up the dead rubber like a slick carnival promoter.
"To win a World Cup you have to win three big games in a row -- we've won two so this third game is the most important game we'll play all year," the canny Australian declared.
Having guided England to the Six Nations grand slam and scalped a southern hemisphere heavyweight with a game to spare, Jones has urged his team to keep their foot to the floor.
Another win over the hosts would shore up their spot at second in world rankings but also help Jones convince them that they can eventually challenge the world champion All Blacks.
After Melbourne, Jones spoke of resting weary bodies and injecting fresh legs at Sydney Football Stadium.
It was all smoke and mirrors.
The side that runs out will be unchanged, barring an injury-enforced replacement of openside flanker James Haskell for New Zealand-born 23-year-old Teimana Harrison.
For Cheika, the match is much more than a chance to salvage pride. Victory might win back faith in the running game that underpinned the Wallabies' route to the World Cup final but was diminished by the defeats in Brisbane and Melbourne.
The Wallabies have been slammed from pillar to post by a disappointed home media, criticised for lacking invention in attack and for squandering scoring opportunities.
The lack of a second playmaker to back up flyhalf Bernard Foley has been addressed, with Matt Toomua named at inside centre to replace Samu Kerevi.
There will be a lot of expectation heaped on Toomua's shoulders in his first test for the season after recovering from a knee injury.
Unhappy with his second row throughout the series, Cheika has replaced both locks, bringing back Rob Simmons to partner with man-mountain Will Skelton, who also makes his first appearance this year in a Wallabies jersey.
Skelton brings heft and ball-carrying ability but a record of indiscipline and has yet to fulfil his promise at test level.
"It's pretty self-explanatory there, I'm a big boy and I like to carry the ball and I want to try and get my hands on the ball as much as I can this week," he told reporters on Thursday.
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