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Each Super Rugby side should contribute three Wallabies

Roar Guru
22nd May, 2016
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Pick me Mike, pick me! Sean McMahon is loving life in Japan. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Roar Guru
22nd May, 2016
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1264 Reads

With the Test season coming we can all expect that the curiously Australian habit of bickering over which state’s players get selected for the Wallabies will begin.

The debate is swinging into full force on The Roar and elsewhere on the internet, pushed by Aussie cyber Rah-Rah’s.

The Kiwis and some others don’t seem to be at all parochial in their opinions around selections and probably find the curious Australian interstate rivalries amusing. As a strict adherent to the merit principle, I’ve decided to see what a more formulaic selection solution to end arguments would throw up in terms of a team.

The selection rule that I propose is that three players get selected to start from each franchise. There would be no exceptions to this rule. An example team that I came up with is a follows:

Scott Sio – Brumbies
James Hanson – Rebels
Greg Holmes – Reds
Rob Simmons – Reds
Adam Coleman – Force
Scott Fardy – Brumbies
Sean McMahon – Rebels
Ben McCalman – Force
Nick Phipps – Waratahs
Bernard Foley – Waratahs
Hoe Tomane – Brumbies
Samu Kerevi – Reds
Israel Folau – Waratahs
Reece Hodge – Rebels
Ross Haylett-Perry – Force

There are a few questions to ask about this side. Firstly, would you be happy with the Wallabies fielding this team? I would, it looks like it would be pretty formidable to me.

Did it involve compromises to accommodate the selection rule? You bet. There are some great players left out. Would I be happy with other combinations I would also be happy with? Yeah, we could play around with it and I reckon it would still look good.

The lesson? The Wallabies actually have enough depth to be competitive over a Test season and perhaps we should obsess less about individual players and worry more about how the team works.

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Bring on the international rugby season!

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