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It’s hard to fully comprehend the magnitude of what has occurred in Australian Rugby in the last few weeks, but I’m glad to see that the Wallabies once more have a coach.
Recent form doesn’t look too impressive for the team at the moment. In their last three encounters the Wallabies were ahead at half time before succumbing to second-half pressure.
On top of that, Di Patston and Ewen McKenzie have “exited stage left”, and the Kurtley Beale saga is still in full swing, with his hearing delayed further until Friday.
Enough of that though, time to focus on the Spring Tour, which you could be forgiven for forgetting, given the plethora of issues the media has broadcast. Michael Cheika has been named as coach, as has his squad, and he now has nine days to tinker and a formidable 23 against a star-studded Barbarians outfit.
The squad by and large remains the same, but uncapped players Sean McMahon, Tom English, Tetera Faulkner, Henry Speight (finally eligible) and Kyle Godwin make up the bolters who will be relishing the chance to get among the Test environment.
Perhaps even more interesting though, is the fact that we have a new coach who has an abundance of his own New South Welshmen to choose from. I don’t believe Cheika will let bias rule the 23, but I am hopeful that he can recognise the potential of Will Skelton and Luke Jones, and work towards finding our best 10/12 pairing.
Quade Cooper still hasn’t notched any Test minutes for the 2014 season due to Bernard Foley’s composure, and Christian Lealifano produced a blinder in the absence of Matt Toomua and Beale.
These are good headaches for a coach to have, but it’s imperative that this tour is used to identify our best possible 23, because we are still lacking certainty in a few positions.
I really feel for Cheika, to have been thrust into the most important job in Australian rugby two days before flying to Europe to begin preparation for an arduous draw of Northern Hemisphere Tests. My biggest hope is that Wallabies fans recognise the pressure he is under and can forgive him if he doesn’t win every match.
Realistically, I’d be happy with three from five – as long as both losses aren’t to our Rugby World Cup pool rivals Wales and England. This isn’t to say that our games against Ireland or France will be easy, but we have gone from playing the top two teams in the world five times in the past two months and now have to face teams ranked third, fifth, sixth and seventh.
As Australians we see anything other than a win is unsatisfactory. This idea is magnified given our demolition of France in June and the first-up draw against the All Blacks in Sydney. Even though we only managed two wins from the six most recent games, wins against the All Blacks and Springboks are hard for any team to notch up and given the internal struggles at Camp Wallaby and the tenacity of the ever-improving Pumas, a loss away to them is not the end of the world.
With this is mind, I implore everyone to wait out the Spring Tour before making judgment. Give Cheika a chance to familiarise himself with the entire playing group and work out our best options for the 2015 World Cup.
He turned around the Waratahs with great success and even though the Test arena is a different beast, I’m sure that Cheika will see us through successfully.
Good luck Michael Cheika and good luck Wallabies, give them hell!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.