Rugby World Cup 2019: Team unity key to Wallabies title hopes, says former captain Stephen Moore

Forget the performances and results from any Wallabies tests this year, former captain Stephen Moore says their Rugby World Cup hopes will hinge on how well the players come together.

Moore was skipper of the 2015 Australia side that exceeded all expectations by reaching the final at Twickenham, where they came up short against the All Blacks.

The veteran of 129 tests says that campaign was the perfect example of camaraderie eclipsing talent and he expects coach Michael Cheika to adopt the same mantra in Japan.

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Moore reckons Cheika will have made team-bonding a priority during their 10-day pre-campaign camp in Noumea and it will be the same again this week in Odawara, south of Tokyo, where they'll prepare away from the tournament limelight.

"Four years ago, we worked really hard at the camps and out of that, we wanted to play for each other," Moore told AAP.

"The most important component to team success is how it gels. Then, once you get a few wins together, you get confidence in what you're doing and everything is 
reinforced."

The Wallabies flew from Sydney, 14 hours later than planned. The delay was caused by a typhoon lashing Japan, which made landfall near Tokyo on Monday morning.

Moore is unconcerned by the erratic nature of Australia's test performances in the lead-up, saying little should be read into all matches over the past seven weeks, as teams were at different points of preparation and motivation.

A good example was last month's 36-0 loss to the All Blacks at Eden Park, which 
Moore attended.

He says the hosts came out steaming and wonders if Australia may have been 
subconsciously distracted by all the glowing press after their big Bledisloe Cup win in Perth a week earlier.

"I don't think anyone - bar New Zealand - would have won that game, they were 
obviously very desperate," Moore said.

"I wouldn't read too much into it - that's as hard a test match as they're going to play and probably as close as you'll get to a World Cup final-type scenario.

"So it will be a good experience for those young Wallabies players to have been under that kind of pressure and hopefully they'll learn a fair bit from that."

Moore hopes critics will write the Wallabies off en masse, making it easier for Cheika's men to harness a siege mentality that was a pillar of Australia's campaign four years ago.

AAP 

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