The Kangaroos booked their spot in the World Cup semi-finals after a convincing win over Lebanon, setting up a date with New Zealand.
The Australians have been relatively uncontested in the first four games of the tournament but will undoubtedly face their toughest test against the Kiwis.
New Zealand narrowly scrapped past Fiji in their quarter final clash but still looms as the biggest threat to Australia regaining its World Cup crown.
Speaking to SEN, Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga noted how difficult the game will be for his side and have some insight into his thought process on selecting a squad.
“We’re obviously going to be tested defensively this week coming up… we lacked a bit of composure (against Lebanon), if we want to win the World Cup we’ve got to grind and get a good victory out,” Meninga said on SENQ Mornings.
“We’ll pick and stick, we’ve got a couple of things we want to look at from our bench point of view, I’m pretty comfortable with our starting 13 I think that works really well.
“We’ve got Reagan Campbell-Gillard perhaps to come back into the 13 and Benny Hunt's back this week because we rested him.
“Probably a couple of players might miss out this week because I’m pretty keen on getting those two involved (Hunt and Campbell-Gillard).
cMaybe we go for an all-forwards bench this week to obviously cataract the big forwards and quality of the New Zealand pack.”
Meninga is yet to pick a bench without a utility player which will likely mean Daly Cherry-Evans has played his final game for the tournament, barring an injury or suspension.
“It’s no secret that they work very well together Ben and Harry (Grant) they did really well at Origin level, and they’ve done really in the first couple of games together, they’re fit and raring to go, at this stage I would think both are going to play,” Meninga said.
Meninga sang the praises of Cherry-Evans labelling his professionalism as a major reason as to why it is so hard to leave him out of the side.
The Kangaroos will battle New Zealand for a spot in the World Cup decider on Saturday morning in Leeds.