Australia coach Robbie Deans relished the opportunity of a rare midweek tour fixture on Tuesday after his Wallabies side saw off Gloucester 36-5 at Kingsholm.
"We would love to do it again," said Deans, following Australia's five-try triumph.
"The blokes really enjoyed it. It was great for us to have the opportunity of rugby outside of a Test match.
"Gloucester played with a lot of spirit and asked quite a bit of our guys, but we finished strongly."
First-half tries by centres Ryan Cross and Tyrone Smith sent the Wallabies on their way, before wing Drew Mitchell's late double and a Quade Cooper solo score finished Gloucester off.
Fly-half Cooper booted four conversions and kicked an early penalty, although Gloucester deserved so much more than full-back Freddie Burns' well-worked touchdown.
Despite fielding several fringe first-team players and only a handful of internationals, Gloucester displayed character and commitment by the bucket-load.
Had they shown more composure in attack, then the game could have proved distinctly uncomfortable for a Wallabies outfit that faces another midweek outing against Cardiff Blues in three weeks' time.
"Our guys wanted to make the most of it," added Deans. "A lot of them are only going to play twice on tour.
"When you are going from Test match to Test match, you don't get the opportunity to give guys that development time on the field."
Cross and Cooper were Australia's star performers, yet for all Cross' world-class quality he is unlikely to face England at Twickenham on Saturday, having played tonight and against New Zealand in Tokyo last weekend.
Deans will announce his side to tackle England on Thursday, and he predicted the latest contest between two of Test rugby's fiercest rivals would be "a ripper."
Gloucester captain Jake Boer was hugely disappointed with the margin of defeat, claiming: "We played all the rugby.
"It seems to be the story of our season. We made too many basic errors, and Australia took their opportunities.
"At this level you are not going to get away with making mistakes. They didn't really play in our half, but this game is about winning.
"I just feel frustrated for the guys - rugby can be a cruel game.
"We played some good stuff out there, but we need to start getting some results. All we can do is to keep working."
Comments
KiwiRooster says...
Eur. they should have played Leicester or the London Irish, maybe even Bath to really test themselves. Gloucester are no big team this season, they are struggling. And Tuqiri is now at Leicester, it would have been fun to watch him play against his former team mates.
Posted 00:39 04th November 2009