Deans not in the business of giving Test jumpers away

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans says he won’t be handing out Test jerseys freely for Saturday’s European tour-opening clash with Italy in Padova.

Deans has a host of emerging youngsters in his 34-man squad and the 10th-ranked Italians are the weakest line-up the Wallabies will face during their five-match assignment.

But the supercoach says it’s vital to strike the right balance between blooding players on merit and not undermining the Test-match occasion with the selection of too many rookies.

“The reality is when you’re playing six Test matches back to back against the sort of quality of opposition that we’ve got, including a world XV in the last game, we’re going to have to maximise the playing pool that we have,” Deans said.

“But we will target a win in every instance.

“How we do that will become clear week by week as we look at the circumstances, as well as the individual and their status and their readiness based on injuries, form, etc.

“We’ve got some talent with us who are clearly going to be Test players in time, but they’re not right now. They have talent, so to speak.
“Until they get that apprenticeship time under their belts - and most of the apprenticeship happens through the week, not on the weekend in a game - they’ll remain as that.

“So their entry is most likely to be off the bench because the critical thing for them is that, when they do get some involvement, they do well.

“And that accelerates their growth.”

Deans will name his 22-man squad tomorrow and expects to have key forwards Wycliff Palu (knee), Hugh McMeniman (ankle) and Adam Freier all available after they were ruled out of last Saturday’s 19-14 Bledisloe Cup loss to the All Blacks in Hong Kong.

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