CHALLENGES usually found in backyard footy and in social golf are some of the tricks being used by the Wallabies to help sharpen up their goalkicking for the World Cup. 
New Australian kicking coach Chris Malone revealed a few of the unusual techniques he had introduced after joining the Wallabies in the lead-up to the tournament.
Goal-kicking has been a headache for Australia this year but Malone, who replaced former ARU kicking coach Damien Hill, said while he hadn't attempted to change the techniques of Bernard Foley, Quade Cooper and co, he had attempted to work on steeling the kickers' mentally.
"Everyone has to understand what makes them successful in terms of how they kick ... that's the mental state you want to be in under the fiercest of pressure," Malone said.
"(We) build up environments at training where we put them under a bit more pressure and make them kick a goal to win something. So we have just been working on that and getting good change out of them." Just like a kid imagining his kick in the backyard is to win a final, Malone sets up pressure kicks for his players. And other players are allowed to sledge away at will.
" There is no etiquette," Malone said.
"We like to do that within our own sessions. I will allow them to get stuck into one another." Malone spent a decade playing in the UK as a goalkicking five-eighth prior to returning to coach Sydney Uni.
He said his task was to bring a European mindset to the Wallabies kickers. "My history, particularly in Europe, is that people spend hours and hours a week on it and if we want to be the best in the world, that part of our game has to be best practice as well," he said."They have all improved in that all fully understand their actions and what makes kicks work for them. It is just about, 'OK, what works for you?' and let's make sure I can monitor that you are doing that every time you do it."