Rugby-Battered Wallabies head north to put down World Cup marker

SYDNEY, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Australia's beleaguered rugby union team left for their end-of-season northern hemisphere tour on Friday with a new coach and players talking of giving him an unbeaten start to his tenure as he eyes the World Cup in less than a year's time. New Wallabies coach Michael Cheika was only appointed on Wednesday, two days before the team left for the five-match tour that includes tests against World Cup pool opponents England and Wales. Cheika was hurriedly ushered into the position after some delicate negotiations with his Super Rugby side the New South Wales Waratahs to replace former World Cup winning prop Ewen McKenzie, who quit last Saturday. The 49-year-old McKenzie resigned after his side snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against the All Blacks in Brisbane, though a battle with his players and an unseemly disciplinary situation with Kurtley Beale had been the catalyst for the decision rather than the 29-28 loss to New Zealand. The fact Beale's disciplinary hearing into his involvement in sending "deeply offensive" text messages about the team business manager Di Patston in June was not scheduled until after the team had left Australia allowed them to concentrate on what they needed to do in Europe over the next month. "As a team, it's great to get away from it. We can sort of internalise it a bit now," flyhalf Bernard Foley told reporters at Sydney airport on Friday. "We can get away from all the stuff that has been happening in Australia over the past month or so and it's exciting. "We visit the best cities in the world and we're fortunate enough to play against the best teams in the world at the greatest stadiums in front of some of the most hostile crowds. "That's an experience that you can't get anywhere else. "So we've got five weeks to really get to know each other and have a good time. "We can get away, gel and become real tight." The team will need to 'get tight' as a unit if they are to put the turmoil behind them and send a message to their World Cup challengers they can still be a force to come when they show up in England next September. The Wallabies lost their last two games in the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship and Cheika's side face a tough itinerary in Europe. They ease into the tour against an invitational Barbarians side in London before they face World Cup Pool A opponents Wales in Cardiff and then travel to Paris for a clash against France then face a vastly improved Ireland side in Dublin. They finish their tour against Stuart Lancaster's England, who are looming as the dark horses for the World Cup, at Twickenham on Nov. 29. Foley, however, is convinced the Wallabies squad, which includes dynamic fullback Israel Folau -- who won the John Eales Medal on Thursday as Australia's best player in 2014 -- can return home unbeaten. That would give them confidence ahead of the shortened international programme next year before the World Cup. "We wouldn't sell ourselves short and not want to win all four tests," Foley added. "That's why you play the game. You don't go out there to lose. "So we're looking to win all five games and start that winning culture because it does become a habit." (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)