Former Australia captain John Eales believes the Wallabies will still be a major threat at the 2011 World Cup despite their recent poor run.
Australia have won just one of their last seven matches including four consecutive Bledisloe Cup losses and now face Tests against England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in consecutive weeks.
But Eales, who skippered the Wallabies in 55 of his 86 Test appearances, pointed at his side's struggles in 1997 - two years before they won the 1999 World Cup - as an example of how quickly things can change.
"They're in better shape than we were (in 1997)," said Eales, nicknamed "Nobody" because "nobody's perfect".
"There are parallels (between the two sides) with potential but they're in better shape than we were."
Despite his belief coach Robbie Deans has the talent at his disposal to achieve long-term success, Eales is less confident over their Grand Slam prospects.
"The Grand Slam, I don't know it's going to be tough, Ireland are one of the best teams in the world and so are Wales, England are never easy at home and Scotland scrap their way to unlikely victories a lot of the time."
Asked to account for the Wallabies recent lack of success, Eales implied a lack of confidence is largely to blame.
"Confidence is a funny thing, when you've got it sometimes you don't know why you've got it and when you haven't you don't know where to get it and I'm sure they are in that space against the All Blacks so, one win can make a big difference," he added.
The Wallabies begin their first Grand Slam bid in 25 years against England at Twickenham on Saturday. And while the injury ravaged hosts will enter the clash as the underdogs, Eales expects the Old Enemy to fire.
"It's a crucial game because starting a Grand Slam tour you don't want to be out of the Grand Slam after game one," he said.
"They'll be very tough, I mean England in England at Twickenham, very hard."
Meanwhile, Eales endorsed Rocky Elsom as the man to lead the Wallabies into the future.
"Rocky's a very capable guy, he's been touted as being the best player in the world so he's a very influential guy, very important guy for the Australian team and he's taking this role very seriously," he said.
"You can't expect someone to just step in to a role and be a world beater as sometimes people do. Leadership is incremental, you're going to learn from every experience.
"So I'd imagine it'd be good for him to have his first one out of the way and he'll build from that, but I think we've got to look very positively at what's ahead for the Wallabies and the Grand Slam tour is a wonderful opportunity."
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