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Robbie Deans gets Wallabies squad right (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
And Deans has shown his toughness about getting the best possible outcome for his team by taking the captaincy from Rocky Elsom and promoting James Horwill to the job.
My take on this is that Deans has read the World Cup format correctly.
The format allows the best team in the tournament to emerge as the winner. This team might not necessarily be the best team in the world.
It is quite possible to win a World Cup, as South Africa did in 2007, without actually playing the best teams in terms of world rankings.
In 2007 the two top-ranked sides were New Zealand and Australia (as they are this year). But neither of these sides progressed beyond the quarter-finals.
Promoting Horwill to the captaincy also gives an energy to the leadership group that had been missing under Rocky Elsom.
Elsom has presented a slightly feral look that does not fit the corporate image the Wallabies want to present.
Horwill was clean-cut, almost elegant in a John Eales manner when he took questions about his promotion to the captaincy. His toughness and his determination should not be under-estimated.
The demotion of Elsom allow for the Wallabies to at least experiment with a back row that involves, say, Wycliff Palu, Scot Higginbotham and David Pocock.
One of the problems for the Wallabies this year has been the lack of firepower in the middle of the field. A back row with Palu or even Radike Samo and Higginbotham offers at least the potential to improve on this.
The other weakness has been the play of Adam Ashley-Cooper at outside centre. The breaks he made last year are no longer being made.
The selection of Rob Horne, particularly, gives Deans the options of pairing this talented but injury-prone player with Pat McCabe to give the Wallabies a tougher tackling and harder running combination than has played for the Wallabies in the last couple of seasons.
There is no place for Matt Giteau in the squad, and this makes sense. The back-ups like Horne and Berrick Barnes are better value for the Wallabies than a former champion well into the twilight of his career like Giteau.
Giteau was given every chance to nail his colours to the mast but this year and last year his play was not up to standard.
Given his long career there is no hope that he can improve, unlike Horne and Barnes who have their best rugby ahead of them.
Deans is not totally youth obsessed. He has picked two gnarled veterans as back-up second rowers in Nathan Sharpe and Daniel Vickerman. And this makes sense.
Rob Simmons will be a champion but against the All Blacks he seemed slightly over-awed and over-powered by his opponents. Sharpe was good against the Springboks at Durban, which is the real test of a second rower.
He and Vickerman (one of them as as starter and the other as reserve) could be handy if the Wallabies and England meet up in the semi-final, as they are drawn to do.
The three halfbacks and three hookers option also makes sense. If a player gets injured he can be replaced with someone outside the squad. But once the player is replaced he cannot come back into the squad, no matter what other injuries occur.
So the three halfbacks and three hookers provides a certain insurance cover if one of these players picks up a niggling injury which may require a week or so to recover.
With only two players in these positions, the Wallabies would have been forced to go outside the squad with the inevitable loss of the slightly injured player.
There are only eight survivors from the ill-fated and poorly-coached 2007 squad. This gives an indication of how Deans has created his squad specifically for the New Zealand tournament.
It is an exciting squad. The additions add value to the group picked for the Tri-Nations. There is a new captain.
You have the feeling that if the breaks go the way they might for this team (working on the theory that in sport you make your luck), they should give a strong account of themselves in Rugby World Cup 2011.