The Wallabies are backing mercurial playmaker Quade Cooper to respond with a cool-headed display to get Australia's Rugby World Cup campaign back on track on Friday night.

While it was Australia's forward pack that was beaten off Eden Park in last Saturday's 15-6 loss to Ireland, Cooper has also copped flak for not taking control and playing a more territorial game.

But coach Robbie Deans and stand-in captain Will Genia, deputising for resting skipper James Horwill, say every single Wallaby was guilty of poor decision making in Australia's last-up defeat.

Deans says the Wallabies must be smarter, more disciplined and more combative against the USA in Wellington - and that starts, but doesn't finish, with his playmaking five-eighth Cooper.

"If Quade was here, he'd tell you that if had his time again, he might take some different choices," he said.

"But that's what makes this game the great game that it is. It's absolutely certain that he won't get every decision right.

"Neither will Willie (Genia), neither will any of us, neither will any player in this tournament.

"The key to this is how we respond to our circumstance, particularly collectively, and the other key element is the intent and we're working hard on that.

"It's coming and we'll certainly be better for our most recent experience."

Genia said there was little chance of his Queensland Reds halves partner going into his shell at the Cake Tin.

"He's not that sort of a guy," Genia said.

"As Robbie said, not everybody's going to make the right decisions on the field and that's a big place where Quade is maturing; he knows that sometimes he won't make the right decisions and then we just go back and start again.

"Tighten it up and keep it simple. That's something he's spoken about this week and hopefully that's something he'll put into practice on Friday.

"I know he will."

Deans made it clear there could be no more dwelling over the Wallabies' loss to Ireland, which has thrown Australia into a cut-throat sudden-death predicament for the rest of the tournament.

"History is established, it can't be changed. We've got to deal with what's in front of us now," he said.

"It's not important. You look at performance over time, you can compare consistency of wins, if you like, and you could suggest we were the most consistent coming into the tournament.

"We've dropped one (game). Maybe that will be a good thing. It has to be from our perspective."

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