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On Monday, a day after the announcement of the Wallabies 22-man preliminary train-on squad for the opening round of The Rugby Championship, I received an email from someone with a lot of rugby knowledge that carried the heading: 12 Queenslanders?
The content of the email was, in my opinion, spot on. It pointed to a certain indulgence by Michael Cheika with the failed Reds squad and, particularly, with a couple of prominent, highly-paid and poorly performing players in it: “How did 12 Queenslanders made the train-on squad? They’ve been AWFUL all year. Their effort against the marauding Crusaders four weeks or so ago was appalling.
“I’ve watched 23 of them run around on Saturday night against the Waratahs and outside of Cooper, Gill and Holmes the rest were more anonymous than a wrong number. I consider Kerevi has had a great debut season and Simmons has been a constant for the Wallaby scrum these past two years, however to stretch these five and Genia into 12 is embarrassing.
“At the same time there were only a half dozen each from the more impressive Rebels and the equally poor Force. Perhaps the Rebel/Force selections highlight the stupidity that each has too many ineligible players for Wallaby selection.”
For the record the train-on squad is: (Rebels) Paul Alo-Emile, Scott Higginbotham, Luke Jones, Sean McMahon, Toby Smith: (Reds) Quade Cooper, Saia Fainga’a, Will Genia, Liam Gill, James Hanson, Greg Holmes, Karmichael Hunt, Samu Kerevi, James O’Connor, Rob Simmons, James Slipper: (Force) Adam Coleman, Nick Cummins, Tetera Faulkner, Ben McCalman, Matt Hodgson.
No players from the Brumbies and the Waratahs, two finalists in the 2015 Super Rugby tournament, are included in this list. When the squad to play in The Rugby Championship is announced, after the finals, it will be loaded with players from these two strong sides.
So the train-on squad announced on Monday is essentially a makeshift group, most of whom are not going to survive the cut. Because of this, the squad was an ideal opportunity to give some younger players who will be future Wallabies an opportunity to get a feel for the Wallaby environment, and how much they need to improve, on and off the field with their preparation and play, to make it in the Wallaby colours.
Two names stick out for me as players who should have been given this sort of opportunity: Kyle Godwin, who was in a training squad last season and has signed for the Western Force until 2016, and Nick Stirzaker, rated by Nick Farr-Jones who knows a thing or two about the halfback position as the third best halfback in Australia.
In Paul Cully’s team of the week in the SMH after the last round of Super Rugby Kyle Godwin and Marcel Brache, both from the Force, were the selected centres.
Among the older players, all of whom have been Wallabies, the absence of Mike Harris, the dead-eyed goal-kicker who can play in most of the backline positions from no 10 outwards, and the front-rowers Nathan Charles and Pek Cowan is hard to fathom.
With no obvious back-up to Israel Folau as a starting fullback, Harris appears to be an obvious candidate for the job. He played splendidly for the Rebels in this position this year.
Charles and Cowan have performed well for the Wallabies and the Force in an area, the front row, where there are serious weaknesses in the national side. How a second Reds hooker in Saia Fainga’a can be preferred, even in a train-on squad, to Charles remains a baffling matter.
Equally as baffling is the inclusion of Karmichael Hunt in the train-on squad. Let’s be blunt here. Hunt’s transfer from the AFL to rugby has been a financial, political and playing disaster for the game.
There is all these media talk about Hunt showing leadership qualities and having a burning determination to play in the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament.
Well, I wanted to be a latter-day Ernest Hemingway when I was younger. Guess what, I never produced any prose to match the master and that was that. Hunt came to rugby with a terrible secret about drug use he’d kept from the Reds authority. He has been injured more than he has played. And when he has played he has been virtually anonymous.
Hunt has no right to be included in the train-on squad ahead of someone like, say, Mitch Inman.
And what about James O’Connor? He has, like Hunt, been injured a lot. And like Hunt he has played poorly when he has played at five-eighth, wing and fullback.
Another point about why O’Connor should be out of the reckoning is that it is clear that Michael Cheika is going to select Matt Giteau as his three-in-one player on the reserve bench, and as a starter against lesser teams in the Rugby World Cup tournament.
To show that that this is not just old Spiro indulging in an anti-Reds rant, something that is often raised on The Roar, I refer to a recent article, again by Paul Cully in the SMH, about his top 15 leading performers in the Australian Conference of the 2015 Super Rugby tournament.
In the second-row, Cully opts for Will Skelton and the Rebels Lopeti Timani. Timani, a Rebels player, is not on the Cheika List.
In the five-eighths, Bernard Foley (rightly) gets the jersey with an honourable mention for Jack Debreczeni. Debreczeni is not on the Cheika List.
At inside-centre, Cully’s first choice is Mitch Inman for “sheer consistency.” Inman is not on Cheika’s List.
At fullback, the obvious first choice is Israel Folau. But Cully’s honorable mention goes to Dane Haylett-Petty “a rare highlight for the Force with his size and ability to make room for others.” Haylett-Petty is not on Cheika’s List.
We get back to the key issue. Why has Cheika over-loaded the train-on squad with non-performing Reds players? Why have these players been rewarded for a terrible season from most of them? And why haven’t some of the future Wallabies stars, players like Debreczeni, Timani, Stirzaker and Haylett-Petty, and experienced campaigners like Cowan, Inman and Harris been left out?