FORMER Wallaby captain and Denhams Beach resident John Thornett has been keenly watching the 2015 World Cup, and believes Australia’s opponents on Sunday, the New Zealand All Blacks, are the same as the All Blacks sides he faced, ie, really, really good. “They are the hardest opponents in the world, and I have great admiration for them,” he said. “It didn’t matter whether you played them in New Zealand or elsewhere, they were always hard.”   He knows the Wallabies are outsiders, just as the Australian sides he played in against New Zealand were outsiders, but thinks this can have its advantages. “We’ve got to be underdogs,” he said on Sunday’s match at Twickenham. “We were always underdogs when we played against them, but it is a pretty good position to play from. “In a way, the pressure is on New Zealand.” Tests against the All Blacks produced more defeats than victories for Mr Thornett. “We won about every one-in-three, which was pretty good, really,” he said. He said New Zealand and South Africa were always his toughest opponents, and named All Black Colin Meads as the greatest player he ever faced. “He was the epitome of a rugby player,” he said. “He was a really hard man, and I only missed two tackles, and one was on him. “I bounced off him like a fly.” He names fellow Wallaby legend Ken Catchpole as his best team mate. “He was a little genius,” he said. He believes it won’t hurt the Wallaby players to be nervous before the final, because it didn’t hurt him and his team mates. “If you didn’t get nervous, you didn’t play well,” he said. “It is good to get hit hard early; you are right into it then.”    He’s not surprised that Australia has made the final, even after the narrow escape against Scotland. “We have been playing pretty well and and have done well (results wise),” he said. “We are about where I expected us to be, even if we were lucky with the referee against Scotland.” Mr Thornett came from a  talented family, to say the least. His brother Dick was a triple international, representing Australia in rugby union (where he played alongside John), rugby league and water polo, and other brother Ken played 12 rugby league tests for Australia.