Wallabies playing for quarter-final roles

Australia’s Rugby World Cup dreamers will be auditioning for places in the Wallabies’ quarter-final line-up when they tackle Russia in Nelson on Saturday.

With several stars unavailable due to injury, Robbie Deans will field a new-look outfit featuring freakish No.8 Radike Samo on the wing at Trafalgar Park.

The coach insists no side is set in stone and has challenged his makeshift team to apply the pressure to selectors ahead of the following weekend’s likely sudden-death quarter-final against defending champions South Africa.

“All these blokes want to play every game – every minute of every game – and they know that those minutes are running out,” Deans said.

“So they’ll all want to play as well as they can and obviously promote themselves to give themselves the best chance of doing exactly that.

“You just don’t know how things will evolve, but the good thing is we’ll have any number of blokes who we believe in.

“Then it becomes a matter of looking at who we’re playing, looking at our needs, looking at our capabilities and just piecing it together.”

Of particular interest on Saturday will be the performance of midfielder Berrick Barnes, who will make his first starting appearance of the year.

The 2011 Wallabies have been successful in using direct, straight-running centres but, with Anthony Faingaa, Pat McCabe and Rob Horne all out injured, Deans has turned to Barnes.

In Barnes, Adam Ashley-Cooper outside him and five-eighth Quade Cooper on his inside, the Wallabies have reverted to the midfield combination that ended 2010 so spectacularly with a record-breaking 59-16 rout of France in Paris.

The trio’s display against Russia will undoubtedly provide the selectors with food for thought.

“We’ve been adapting our game through the tournament and hopefully that will continue to be the case,” Deans said.

“If we think there’s a particular approach that serves us better, then we might apply someone who’s stronger in that capability.

“It becomes very much a matter of which player we want to involve in that (particular style).

“But we don’t have any ideas right now; a) we don’t know who we’re playing (in the quarter-finals) and b) we need to look at how these blokes go on the weekend.

Deans said Australia’s injury situation in many ways had broadened the options.

“The squad was chosen with that in mind and we’ve got that type of versatility,” he said.

“Despite only having 13 backs and with all the injuries, we’ve still got a lot of ability to mix and match, even if it’s Radike that we use in the first instance.

“Who we use this weekend will clearly have a bearing (on who we pick next week).”

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