His sights firmly set on next year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has welcomed Australia’s jam-packed 20-match program in 2010.
While ARU boss John O’Neill has forecast the possibility of less Tests in future to avoid player burnout, Deans on Wednesday said more games the merrier this year as he and fellow selectors try to settle on a squad capable of bringing the Webb Ellis Cup back to Australia.
“Twenty fixtures this year is going to put us in really good space for what’s coming next year,” Deans said.
“This year is our last year, our last opportunity of any significance – of time and substance – to be able to work with the group.
“Next year we’ve got an extended Super rugby program, then four Tri Nations Test matches and, one week later, the World Cup.
“So everything we do this year is very important in terms of building towards that.”
Deans is delighted to be overflowing with talent, a far cry from previous years, and not even the prospect of gun halfback Will Genia missing Australia’s entire June Test series against Fiji, England and Ireland with a knee injury could dampen his enthusiasm.
“We’ll always have 22 fit blokes running out on the ground,” he said.
“So there’s going to be development opportunities and we don’t see it (playing more games) as a risk.
“There’s a risk every time you strap your boots on and these blokes love that.
“We have a number of injuries – we have essentially a full XV of players that we would consider that we can’t pick in the first instance – it’s not a bad XV either, but we also have more depth.
“We have a lot of tough decisions to make and it’s a good problem to have.
“To be frank, up until now, we haven’t really had that because there’s only been a pool of players that we believe were genuinely of international standard.”
Genia on Wednesday revealed he’d require a knee brace for a grade two medial ligament injury until Friday week and that he’d be unable to run for another three weeks.
“So hopefully the plan is to play within four or five (weeks),” he said.
Deans admitted it was possible that Genia could miss all four inbound Tests.
“But he’s talking confidently and the injury’s one that normally is not too sinister. It’s normally pretty straight forward,” Deans said.
Even still, the coach won’t risk playing arguably Australia’s most influential back if he is less than 100 per cent fit.
Deans plans to name a 40-man squad for the Wallabies’ June series – which also includes two mid-week games against the Barbarians – after the NSW Waratahs complete their Super 14 involvement.
The Waratahs take on South Africa’s Stormers in a sudden-death semi-final in Cape Town early on Sunday AEST, with the title decider scheduled for next weekend.
“If the Waratahs go to the final, then we will pull back on some of that group for the first Test (against Fiji in Canberra on June 5),” Deans said.
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