MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Will Skelton's return to the Australia camp has come a week too late for Wallabies fans but the France-based lock hopes to convert Bledisloe pain into Rugby Championship joy against New Zealand in Perth on Saturday.
Skelton missed the 33-24 defeat by the All Blacks at Eden Park last Saturday, having committed to a Top 14 match between La Rochelle and Toulon that ended up being cancelled when the stadium was flooded by heavy rain.
With Australia's Eden Park setback handing the Bledisloe Cup to New Zealand for another year, Wallabies fans wondered what might have been had Skelton, one of their most important players, been available.
The 33-year-old lock said he and Wallabies' team management had looked at all options before deciding against a late dash to Auckland.
"I love playing for Australia and, again, I do love playing for La Rochelle as well. We try and make it work when it can," he told reporters on Monday.
"We want to make everyone in Australia proud of what we do and how we play footy so the Bledisloe might be gone, but we’re definitely putting everything we can into winning this Rugby Championship."
Australia are third in the Rugby Championship table, four points behind leaders South Africa.
Beating second-placed New Zealand on Saturday will not be enough to secure the silverware if the defending champion Springboks beat Argentina at Twickenham.
Australia's progress under coach Joe Schmidt this season has impressed all their Rugby Championship rivals but not produced the silverware they crave.
They lost the British & Irish Lions series 2-1, the Mandela Challenge Plate to South Africa and split the Argentina series 1-1.
They have been competitive in every test but fallen short after a series of slow starts, and hooker Billy Pollard said the near-misses were frustrating even if the overall trend was positive.
"I think everyone in this team just wants to win. That's the whole reason we're here," he said.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Ed Osmond)
