Cameron Shepherd is determined to have former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones eating his words with a career-defining performance in Australia's season-opening rugby Test against Ireland on Saturday night.

A year after a knee injury robbed the Western Force star of a similar opportunity, Shepherd has the chance to cement himself as Chris Latham's long-term fullback successor for the Wallabies - and leave egg all over Jones's face in the process.

The oft-outspoken Jones recently declared in his Brisbane newspaper column that Shepherd "has it all with pace, size and strength but goes missing in tough, physical games".

And it was clear that Shepherd is not happy about effectively being touted as mentally brittle.

"Eddie is one of those guys who's always trying to put his two bob in," Shepherd said.

"I've been looking forward to this opportunity for two years - since I got injured last season - and it's definitely not something I'm going to let slip easily."

The goalkicking 24-year-old admitted he was prone to making the odd blunder, but vowed to heed the advice of new Wallabies coach Robbie Deans to continue backing his attacking instincts.

"It's not something that will be going through my head on the weekend. If mistakes happen, they happen," Shepherd said.

"It's something you don't try to worry about too much. I'm more worried about having positive involvements and I'm going to try to do as many of those as I can.

"Hopefully at the end of the game I'll have more positives than negatives."

Deans' theory is that a player's only mistake is not being decisive.

"Definitely," Shepherd agreed.

"You can't live in fear. There is no room for fear on the field and I'm chomping at the bit to get out there on Saturday."

Shepherd has learned to live in the moment after missing Australia's winter Tests last year when he'd been among the form players before being sidelined in round 12 of the 2007 Super 14 tournament.

"I thought it was my best season so far to date in Super 14, last season, and to get an injury at that time was pretty disappointing," he said.

"But I'm not worried about the past. I'm just looking forward to this opportunity and hopefully I can get a really good go at 15.

"There are some amazing players in the group who can play 15 that probably aren't even being looked at there at the moment.

"I'm just worried about my own game, making sure I have a really good one on Saturday and get a stranglehold on the position."

The 2007 Rugby World Cup squad member knows he faces hot competition from the likes of Adam Ashley-Cooper, Mark Gerrard and the injured Drew Mitchell for the Wallabies' No.15 jumper.

But he said a new coach and a clean slate for everyone was only fuelling confidence within the Wallabies squad.

"The feeling in camp is the best I've ever been involved in," Shepherd said.

"Everything's fresh, everything's new. The motivation is at a high point and everyone is looking forward to playing the game.

"I think that's the most important thing. As long as we can be enthusiastic and go out there and keep going forward, we're going to be successful."

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