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Australian Wallabies Coach Robbie Deans, center, talks to players Matt Giteau, left, and Stirling Mortlock during the captain's run at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008. Australia will play against New Zealand on Saturday. AP Photo/NZPA, Wayne Drought
Selecting teams, as Alan Jones a shrewd selector once said, is all about getting the shape of the side right. Robbie Deans now has the players for a winning Wallabies side. It is up to him to get the shape of his team right to fulfill this promise.
It is obvious from the 30-man squad picked for the opening four Tests of the season that he has turned his back on the class of 2003. George Smith has retired from Test rugby, and by their non-selection in the squad Al Baxter and Phil Waugh are being effectively retired from Test rugby.
The most significant omission here is Al Baxter. Baxter has been the Bill Young of Australian props, a wily campaigner who knows enough to get through most matches but never a prop to give the Wallabies a really strong front row.
Baxter had one great day against England when the Wallabies monstered their opponent’s scrum but he rarely held his own and became a master of dropping scrums. The sight of Baxter shaking his head when he was penalised for this was a sad one for Wallaby and Waratahs supporters.
Statistics reveal that the Waratahs (with Baxter as a prop) and the Brumbies (coached by Young) were responsible for a massive number of re-set scrums in the 2010 Super 14. One of the better scrums was Queensland with their young props Ben Daley and Laurie Weeks.
It is significant that the Queenland forwards have been coached by Alec Evans, the grand old master of forward play and the assistant Wallaby coach for the Grand Slam Wallabies of 1984. Deans has rewarded his work and the play of the two youngsters by putting them in the Wallaby squad.
Nathan Sharpe is the only survivor of the 2003 Wallaby side that played in the Rugby World Cup final. I have been a critic of Sharpe’s play, mainly on the grounds that he delivers less than his intense looks at opponents and agressive talk before the match to reporters might suggest.
But he has attributes the Wallaby pack desperately needs, size. When the Springboks are going to present a 208cm lineout jumper in Andries Bekker opposing sides are going to need all the height they have in their ranks to prevent the dominance of the South African lineout for years to come.
The case of Stirling Mortlock is interesting. He is currently out until next year with surgery done to his back. If he comes back with the form he showed a few years ago, a big ‘if’ of course, then there is a place for him in the centres for the Wallabies. The one outstanding aspect of the gifted backs who have come through Australian rugby this season is that none of them is physically intimidating.
My impression watching the All Blacks play the Wallabies at Wellington in the last Tri Nations tournament in 2009 was that the Wallabies backs looked very small compared with their All Black opponents. A fit Mortlock or, perhaps, Israel Folau, if he came across to rugby union in 2011, would change all this.
With the backs that Deans has he can tick Will Genia as the second best halfback in the world, after the incomparable Fourie du Preez. There are a number of candidates for the crucial number 10 jersey with Quade Cooper being the stand-out Australian player in this position this season.
Last year, though, Deans was keen to play Berrick Barnes at number 10, and he was made vice-captain before he was out of the northern tour through injury.
Will Deans re-assemble a Barnes/Giteau five-eighths combination? Or will he play a Cooper/Giteau combination, with Barnes as the back-up for both positions?
The problem with Cooper is that he has the worst tackling record in the Super 14 tournament. The chat is that Cooper and Beale will not be selected together in a run-on backline because of their defensive weaknesses.
Virtually every back in the squad has form good enough to warrant a place in the outer backs. Personally I think Rob Horne should be given a chance at outside centre, with Adam Ashley-Cooper at fullback and Drew Mitchell and Digby Ioane on the wings.
The pack is not so settled. Rocky Elsom is a certainty for the blind side flanker, and Nathan Sharpe presumably for one of the second row positions and Tatafu Polota-Nau as the hooker (provided his injuries clear up). But it is open for all the other positions, although when Benn Robinson comes back he is a certainty as one of the props.
It intriques me, therefore, that Stephen Hoiles is included in the Wallabies squad, rather than in the Australian Barbarians squad. I’ve always believed that Hoiles has the skills to be an outstanding number 7. As David Pocock fills out he could become a number 8 in the Toutai Kefu manner.
The main point as this stage, though, is developing a competitive Wallaby side for 2010 leading into the RWC nexy year. As John Mitchell notes, Australia seems to have more talent in its rugby ranks than New Zealand does right now.
When Robbie Deans picked his first Wallabies squad back in 2008 I suggested in The Roar that it was a case of ‘Great coach but no cattle.’ The cattle now seems to have come through. Can the coach shape his players into a great side?