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Martin Johnson fears Australia possess the ability to seriously "hurt" England at Twickenham on Saturday despite the tourists' dreadful record this year.
Australia have lost six of their last seven matches with their nightmare Tri-Nations campaign being followed by the Bledisloe Cup defeat to New Zealand in Tokyo on Saturday.
However, Johnson is not reading too much into that run because those games have all been against the best two sides in the world.
The team manager said: "Australia have a lot of weapons that can hurt you and you have to remember, when looking at their results, that they have played New Zealand four times recently.
"During that period they have beaten South Africa and have just come through another tough Test match against the All Blacks which saw them leading at half-time.
"The Wallabies are battle hardened and are used to playing at a high level and so we are not reading anything into that playing record.
"They've been very close to winning a number of those games, have a reasonably young team and we are aware of the severity of the test we face."
Injury has left Johnson without 13 first-choice players for England's opening Test of the autumn series, which also includes matches with Argentina and New Zealand .
However, hooker Dylan Hartley is making a rapid recovery from a hamstring injury and remains in contention to start on Saturday. World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson is ready to step in if Hartley suffers a reaction to today's heavy fitness session.
Despite the debilitating series of injuries, Johnson is still putting the players through rigorous sessions which have been overseen by Wayne Barnes, England's top referee. Barnes has been tasked with helping England avoid the large number of yellow cards that hampered their cause during last year's November Tests that saw them heavily beaten by Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
Johnson insists England will still be hugely competitive at the breakdown but will be more streetwise thanks to Barnes's input.
The manager said: "We are more comfortable as a team about what we are trying to do and it's about being competitive without going over the limit that's acceptable. We know we have to be smarter in terms of yellow cards and that's why we have used Wayne Barnes for every training session. He has been working on areas we consider to be 'hot' and where we need to improve.
"We know Australia have improved hugely at the breakdown as well as the scrummage and that's why we know how tough this is going to be.
"There have been injuries but all that means is that other players now have an opportunity to impress. Delon Armitage got his first chance with England this time last season and made the most of it and now he is injured which means someone else gets a chance."
Johnson will reveal his team tomorrow with Courtney Lawes, the young Northampton forward, expected to win a place on the bench, and he will gain a first cap at some point on Saturday.
"He has all the attributes and has settled in really well and impressed us," added Johnson.
Australia play Gloucester at Kingsholm tonight in preparation for the England game.
