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The Wallabies have pointed out the extra difficulty young, new playmaker Aaron Cruden will face as the All Blacks’ main man in Sunday night’s Rugby World Cup semi-final.
Skateboarding and kicking back just a fortnight ago, Cruden has been thrust into New Zealand’s five-eighth hot seat following tournament-ending injuries to Dan Carter and Colin Slade.
The 22-year-old was seen as Carter’s heir apparent 13 months ago before struggling in the high intensity of a Bledisloe battle in Sydney.
Cruden, though, did impress in his Test return off the bench in the All Blacks 33-10 quarter-final win over Argentina when Slade went down with a groin tear.
Wallabies halfback Luke Burgess suggests it will be much tougher for Cruden to again cope with pressure of starting, especially after a week-long build-up to the huge Eden Park clash.
As back-up to Will Genia, Burgess has played a good majority of his 36 Tests off the bench and said it’s hard to chop and change from being a reserve to a starter.
“It is difficult, one week from being on the bench to starting, I certainly know about that,” he said.
“(But) he’s a talented player, he’ll rise to that challenge and they’ll deal with their situation.”
Helping Cruden is the fact he’ll be sandwiched between his Hurricanes halves partner Piri Weepu and their centres Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith.
As well as their Super Rugby combination, Weepu’s creative attacking game is sure to take some of the heat off the youngster.
Burgess knows Weepu will be a threat at the ruck base, where he made two key blind-side snipes the last time the sides met in Auckland when New Zealand won 30-14 in August.
“He’s a wonderful player, great vision and he’s dangerous in both positions,” he said. “So we’ll prepare for any combination that they have.
“Both players are talented and we will respect them.”
The Wallabies split the Bledisloe series 1-1 this year by holding on to win 25-20 in the August 27 Tri Nations decider in Brisbane after rattling up a 20-3 halftime lead.
Coaching co-ordinator David Nucifora said, to upset the All Blacks, Australia needed to combine that attacking execution with the character and defensive work from the 11-9 quarter-final win over the Springboks.
“We take our defensive effort from the weekend and our first 40 minutes from Brisbane against the Kiwis and we’ll be getting closer to putting together a good performance,” he said.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.