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The inevitable flow-on from highlighting concerns about a certain position is that you start wondering about other positions.
And after putting down the concerns yesterday about Australia’s openside depth post-Liam Gill and in the absence of David Pocock, another position is even more concerning.
With the departures of Will Genia after the Rugby World Cup and Nic White just prior to the tournament, to Stade Français and Montpellier, respectively, the Wallabies lost two of its three best scrumhalves of the last few seasons.
More rugby:
» David Pocock could take a sabbatical from rugby
» Australia’s flanker depth in a state of sixes and no sevens
» Liam Gill to leave the Reds after 2016
» Super Rugby format explained
Between Genia and White, their 88 combined Tests more than double Nick Phipps’ international experience.
Genia, of course, is now eligible via his 66 Tests to remain in contention for Wallabies selection. The big question remains just when Wallabies coach Michael Cheika will play the overseas eligibility cards in 2016, if indeed he plays them at all.
And it won’t be an easy decision.
It will probably come down to a decision of whether development has a higher or lower priority in 2016 than winning the Bledisloe Cup and the Rugby Championship.
Obviously, the Cook Cup series against England in June is part of the thinking as well, but I have extreme doubts that that series would be sit above the aforementioned key southern hemisphere competitions.
There’s no doubt that winning silverware is important, particularly silverware that hasn’t been held in Australian hands for more than a decade. And considering the magnitude of departures over the ditch, 2016 represents Australia’s best Bledisloe shot in some time.
If that tops Cheika’s priorities, and therefore requires the best possible team available to him, I couldn’t argue the point. I’m sick of the Wallabies losing the series every year too, don’t worry.
Besides that, pulling the overseas-based players back for just a fortnight or so for the back-to-back Sydney and Wellington Bledisloe matches in August – and not the Cook Cup, or the Afro-Argentinean legs of the Rugby Championship – would almost certainly keep the ARU on good terms with the European clubs in question.
(And don’t think that won’t be a consideration, an ace kept up the sleeve for when the Wallabies might need the players for a full international season, if you will.)
But if we take Genia out of the equation for the time being, it’s pretty easy to recognise how dire the state of Australian scrumhalves is in 2016.
Think about this: if Nick Phipps was hit by a bus the week before the first Bledisloe Test, who are Australia’s next two or three scrumhalves?
(Yes, I know, Will Genia would quite likely be one in that extreme example. But go with it anyway…)
The sum total of international experience for every other Australian-based No.9 is… zero Tests. Not even an international tour game.
The first two that come to mind immediately are Nic Stirzaker from the Melbourne Rebels and Nick Frisby from the Queensland Reds. But with 23 and 26 Super Rugby caps respectively, they’re not exactly brimming with experience.
Stirzaker was seen by many as a World Cup option in 2015, and if he had even just one more season of professional rugby under his belt, he may well have been the ‘next in line’. He’s a clever player and already a leader of men on the field, but he doesn’t have much of a kicking game and his pass is certainly not faultless.
Similarly, Frisby seems ready to take the next step to become a regular starter for the Reds in 2016 after two strong years in the National Rugby Championship, and as Genia’s understudy for much longer than that again.
Either, or indeed both, if that bus strikes, could find themselves playing a Test match in a little over three months.
How confident are you feeling now?
But what if injury should strike either of those two? Stirzaker didn’t play in the NRC last year after having shoulder surgery, and Frisby found himself out of action in 2014 with a broken jaw. Injuries don’t often discriminate.
Trying to identify the next in line becomes an altogether tougher task.
The Western Force’s Ian Prior played in the Reds’ 2011 championship win and certainly has the experience, but even with five Super Rugby seasons under his belt, he’ll be doing well to keep Ryan Louwrens at bay. And that’s just to sit on the bench behind Alby Mathewson.
Ben Meehan sits behind Stirzaker in Melbourne, but has just seven games to his name in two seasons. Michael Dowsett has been in a similar situation behind White at the Brumbies over the same period, but frankly, I’ll be surprised if he’s still in front of Joe Powell as Tomas Cubelli’s second banana by April.
Matt Lucas has re-joined the Waratahs after a stint in Italy – and has Australian Sevens experience, actually, thinking of my international background question above – but he’d be excused for taking a little time to find his timing in Super Rugby again.
And that just leaves young James Tuttle in Queensland, who certainly plays beyond his years, and who captained Queensland Country in last season’s NRC at just 19 (and with a certain Radike Samo in his team). But his Super Rugby experience thus far is limited to a mercy dash to South Africa last year as injury cover.
Taking all that in, it’s a genuinely scary thought just how thin on the ground the scrumhalf options are.
It’s a thought that might even necessitate that development at international level is put on hold until development at Super Rugby level can carry on in 2016, or in some cases, start.
And it’s a thought that maybe even makes Cheika’s mind up for him, and ensures that Genia spends a couple of months at home during the international season.
Good thing Stade Français have three other scrumhalves in their squad…