Phipps, who featured in all three June Tests as Will Genia was still on club duties in France, was troubled at times by England, who targeted him at the ruck, which affected his ability to get clean ball to Australia's five-eighth Bernard Foley.

He spoke afterwards about the "borderline" tactics England used to get under his skin during the series.

Now tasked with filling Genia's shoes once again for a battle with the old enemy, Phipps is confident things will be different this time around.

"It's probably the biggest block of learning that I've had in my career," Phipps said. "The amount of things I learned on the run, not only on the field but also around the mental side of the game, was something that was a great work-on for me. It's really helped me now to be able to develop into a better player and that'll help me."

Phipps was one of Australia's best in his last start at halfback against Wales in Cardiff and is looking to continue on from there and complement Australia's gradually improving backline.

"It's always good to have confidence and more so having confidence in the players around you," Phipps said. "I guess sitting out for a while you do really start to appreciate the finer things; the amount of time you get and making sure that every opportunity you get, you want to do well and show the coaches and the rest of the players in the group that you're performing well and you're doing your bit for the team.

"We acknowledge that the grand slam's over but [we are] still playing for a lot of pride this weekend and I'm really, really looking forward to it."

While some players, notably Foley, have come out this week and said revenge is on the Australia's mind, Phipps was more measured when asked if avenging a whitewash on home soil had been talked about as preparations finished up for one last time this year.

"I wouldn't really say it's too much revenge," Phipps said. "This is our 15th game of the year and we had a lot of time between there and now. We do know we weren't performing as a team as well as we needed to back then. It's quite pleasing to see the strides that the team's made since then.

"Eddie Jones had them primed. They played some fantastic footy, they were thoroughly deserved winners over the series and for us now we've got to come here into their backyard and try and do the same sort of thing that they did to us."