Lugging the baggage of yet another Bledisloe Cup loss to the All Blacks, the Wallabies departed for their grand slam tour of the British Isles with skipper Rocky Elsom urging his troops to go "hell for leather" in pursuit of rugby history.

Elsom identified living in the moment as the key to a triumphant sweep of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

He says the Wallabies must ignore the hype surrounding the first grand slam attempt in a quarter of century - the first in the professional era - to have any hope of emulating the feats of Alan Jones-coached, Andrew Slack-captained, Mark Ella-inspired 1984 Australian side.

"We're in a position where we really need to look at just the next team and the challenges that go with it," Elsom said as the Wallabies digested their seventh consecutive loss to the All Blacks, a 32-19 defeat in Tokyo on Saturday night.

"We can't really afford to look at how we build and about preparing guys for four matches. We've just got to go hell for leather at each match.

"You can't take anyone for granted because they'll be absolutely gunning for us."

Coach Robbie Deans is excited about his side's "fantastic opportunity", which begins on Saturday with a blockbuster battle against old foes England at Twickenham.

"It's going to be a ripper," Deans said. "There's any amount of history to look at.

"The nature of that contest will be brutal. You've got two sides that are trying to galvanise their position in world rugby and we're playing at their bastion."

The no-nonsense Elsom understands the prestige of the tour, but says his class of 2009 have it all to achieve before they can ever be truly associated with Slack's trailblazers.

"It's only (a) special (tour) if you do well and the way we feel like we're going to do well is to not really think about the big picture because you can waste a lot of energy on that," the big flanker said.

"The grand slam is a hell of a long way away and, as much as you try as hard as you can, things don't always go your way and you can't worry about that.

"If we're going to be successful, we need to really knuckle down on each opponent as they come up and not think about the rest until they're facing us."

The Wallabies have already had setbacks with vice-captain Berrick Barnes (ankle) and fellow centre Rob Horne (hamstring) forced home even before the first match against New Zealand after breaking down at training in Japan.

Elsom says some overdue luck on the injury front is another key to a successful expedition.

"Because we're a young side and we don't have the luxury of being able to rest anyone," he said.

Elsom's immediate task is to restore morale within the Wallabies's 35-man squad after another deflating Test loss to the All Blacks.

For the fifth time in their past six trans-Tasman encounters, the Wallabies wasted a halftime lead, this time a 16-13 advantage, to hand the All Blacks a 4-0 series whitewash.

Elsom shares the frustration of Australian rugby fans.

"As close as you feel like you're getting, you've got to win," he said.

"We can say whatever we like about how we're going or where we're heading, but you'll only know from our performances.

"As much as there was good in what we did against the All Blacks, it goes alongside a few others that didn't go our way."

The Wallabies kick off their UK campaign with a mid-week fixture against Gloucester on Tuesday night, with Deans to finalise his mostly second-string team upon arrival in London on Monday.

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