Robbie Deans will breathe a temporary sigh of relief this week as he will be able to pick a close to full-strength side when his Wallabies play the Springboks in this weekend’s Rugby World Cup quarter final.
Injuries to Digby Ioane, Pat McCabe, Rob Horne, Anthony Fainga’a, Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell have left the backline stocks heavily depleted.
Australia’s problems were so bad that Radike Samo, normally a loose forward, was forced to play on the wing against Russia, something he has not done in over a decade.
However, the return of Ioane and Beale to the starting line-up along with an in-form Berrick Barnes at inside centre, presents a Wallabies back line that could possibly run riot against any team.
However that is the problem. It is only a possibility.
Names such as Genia, Cooper, O’Connor, and Ashley-Cooper, alongside Ioane, Beale and Barnes have had great success in Super Rugby, but results in the Wallabies jersey have been mixed.
The high of beating New Zealand in the Tri Nations has been slightly soured with embarrassing losses to Samoa and Ireland.
There is no doubting the attacking flair that this weekend’s line-up possesses, with many of them being match-winners for their club and Super Rugby sides.
When playing together though, the problem is an inability to play at a high intensity consistently.
This lack of consistency could probably be drawn back to the Wallabies’ sometimes complacent attitude, towards their opposition. However, Robbie Deans would strongly argue against that view, as he did after the loss to Samoa.
“I don’t know what other people were thinking, but we certainly weren’t (complacent) and we talked about that, internally and externally,” Deans said after he and his team were widely criticised.
One player who is criticised for this is Quade Cooper, who seems to be on the wrong side of all those in the game at the moment.
His Queensland Reds’ form has not translated into the Wallabies gold, which was most evident in the World Cup match against Ireland, where nothing seemed to go right for the New Zealand-born fly half.
Away from the negatives though, this team has beaten South Africa twice this year and New Zealand in the most important game this year so far.
Espcially when they played New Zealand in Brisbane, the young Wallabies showed the explosiveness in the backs that can win them the World Cup.
Rugby Realist
Guest
Your headline says it all however, for the whole Australian team. Consistency. If they get up this week (which would be a great achievement against an experienced team, defending champs, tough conditions) can you back it up.
kiwidave
Guest
Genia yes, Beale and O'Connor possibly. AAC? You must be joking, assuming Nonu at 12 he would be behind Smith, Williams, Kahui, Fruean, and maybe Payne and Ranger.
Rugby Realist
Guest
ny ben
Roar Rookie
Please JOC and Beale would both be picked as well as genia and ioene by most roarers. ACC maybe loses by a feather to smith at 13....maybe. So you have Carter and nonu. The only 2 that are no debate.
Rugby Realist
Guest
I would say that the Wallaby backline is brilliant in the right conditions, and very good most of the time A problem they have (and something that Spiro has commented on in the past) is an occasional lack of physicality due to their relative lack of size. This will not always hurt them, but if they are running backwards all night, it can. And it subdues their attack after stopping much bigger men. This is somewhat alleviated with AAC and Digby in the side, but this week Digby is just coming back from injury and AAC has not quite met the very high standards he set last year (against a top side, bar tri nations final) My only point is they are a brilliant backline, but like any team, will not, and cannot fire every week. I think no Barnes is a mistake. But im an NZ supporter, and am stressing out enough over SBW starting wing as it is
Who Needs Melon
Guest
If that's the way you measure, how many teams DO have a good back line? Having said that, how many teams in the past 50 years have had a good back line? Because even when we had Gregan, Larkham, Roff, Mortlock, Tune, you had a pretty good back line yourselves so I'm not sure how many you would have picked. Seems a bit of a blunt tool to measure.
mace22
Guest
The wallaby backline Isn't as good as everyone seems to think it is. Yes they have good players in three or maybe four positions, but the rest are very average or run hot and cold. The way I rate a backline is to say which player would make an all black team, and out of the wallabies I'd say three and thats just not the backline.Pocock on the bench genia and ione in the starting line up. Also they haven't got a good all round 2nd 5 or centre, out of all the finals teams they have the weakest inside backs after argentina. But I think they would give them a good go.