Aussie fans were keeping their fingers crossed that the first-choice Wallabies doubling up for the Scotland Test would get through it unscathed, but two of them didn’t even make it past last weekend.
Our best lock, and captain, is on crutches, and our best full back has re-injured his shoulder. We’re waiting on a medical report on Kurtley Beale, but surely he’ll be rested for the Brumbies game.
The idea of making him play three games in eight days was crazy anyway. In a hard contact sport like today’s pro rugby, two games in nine days should be the lawful limit. In any case, injuries have dimmed our chances for the coming tests.
Few fans believe that Scotland will triumph for the first time in Australia in thirty years, but the Scots will see it as their best chance with a just-recuperated Quade Cooper now a definite starter, and other positions weakened.
Scotland is not a talented team – five straight defeats in the Six Nations – but it’s a fierce one, so now we’re hoping that all the “Newcastle” Wallabies finish the game in good shape. Whatever, we’ll still be under the gun against the Welsh.
Back before the World Cup, we had the quickest, slickest backs in rugby. No more. Genia and Ioane, and Beale if he’s healthy, are our only gold-plated backline stars now. Nobody knows how Quade will go in the tests after so long away. Any combo of McCabe/AAC/Fainga’a/Horne is unlikely to mount a cascade of dazzling attacks.
But things could spark up if Digby gets loose on some inside balls. The Welsh, on the other hand, have Phillips, Priestland, Hook/Davies/Scott Williams, a very reliable 15 in Halfpenny, and two impressively big wings in North and Cuthbert. On paper, their backs are better than ours now.
If all are fit come test time, the Taffies have the better pack, too. There’s great depth in the front row. Paul James, Ken Owens, Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins, these last two weighing in at around 122 kgs apiece, plus lineout-specialist locks in Wyn Jones/Luke Charteris/Ian Evans, and terrific back row possibilities – Justin Tuperic, Dan Lydiate, Tongan Toby Faletau and team captain Sam Warburton.
Facing them could be Kepu, Moore/TPN, and Ben Robinson who’s sometimes called the best loose head in the world. Is he? Anyway, two first-class hookers for sure. With Horwill gone the engine room, Sharpe and Simmons/Douglas/Pyle, might not fire on all cylinders.
The back row is a better story. Pocock and Higginbotham know they have to be immense and I’m sure they will be. Palu? If he’s less than dynamic, Robbie Deans might switch Higgers to 8 and play Dennis at 6. Or something like that. Whichever, we’ll be strong back there.
But paper estimates are one thing, team performance another. The Welsh have played together well enough to win the Six Nations Grand Slam, while it will be an adventure for the new-look Wallabies when they run out at Suncorp, June 9.
As a Wallaby fan, I’m hoping we gel and take the series.
But I can certainly understand why rugby fans in Wales, NZ, SA and Argentina are thinking, and hoping, that four Tests in 18 days will be too much for the wounded Wallabies.
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