Australia coach John Connolly remained in upbeat mood on his return home from his team's disappointing tour of Europe on Tuesday.

The Wallabies drew with Wales, narrowly beat Italy, lost heavily to Ireland and beat Scotland convincingly in November, attracting widespread criticism for their performances.

Connolly, however, who took over the job at the start of the year, said preparations for the 2007 World Cup were progressing well.

"You're not going to go from losing a lot on the trot to winning every game overnight," he told reporters.

"We're happy with the forwards' progress but with the backs we've got a few steps to go."

One of Connolly's main decisions on the tour was switching inside centre Matt Giteau to scrumhalf, but he does not expect the versatile back to play at No. 9 for his new Super 14 team the Western Force.

"It's up to the states to play their players wherever they want them," Connolly said.

"Obviously, we have preference but they have businesses to run and their coaches have to win games and they will play players where they think it's best for their team.

"They run their race and we get the players on June 1 and then we run our race. Matthew's a wonderful player whether he plays 9, 10 or 12."

Connolly also played down incidents of players breaking rules on the tour and suggestions of a "rock-star lifestyle" among the squad.

"There was a couple that came home a bit later than they should have, we mentioned that to them, but no later than most journalists or anyone else would have," he said.

"It was not a problem. People seemed to pounce on something that didn't happen.

"The players behaved themselves the whole time and they worked very hard off the field. This rock-star stuff is just rubbish."