After enduring six straight losses for NSW, Adam Ashley-Cooper was keen to put the Waratahs’ horror stretch behind him when he joined the Wallabies camp.
But he couldn’t escape the pain when Australia’s opening Test of the year ended in a disastrous loss to lowly ranked Scotland.
So when the utility back and five-eighth Berrick Barnes were joined by half a dozen of their NSW teammates for last week’s first Test against Wales, they were hoping for another fresh start.
“With a new environment, we were pretty quick to put the Tahs’ loss behind us and with the disappointment of Tuesday night against the Scottish, we were keen to put that behind us as well,” Ashley-Cooper said on Tuesday.
“It’s a totally different environment. A new program, new shape, a lot of new faces. It’s relatively easy to put your Super 15 losses behind you and concentrate on your job within the national team.
“That was exciting and fresh for us as Tahs players, something that we were really looking forward to.”
Despite their poor Super 15 results, Australia’s eight Waratahs all played major roles in the 27-19 win over Wales and kept their places in an unchanged lineup for Saturday’s second Test in Melbourne.
The versatile Ashley-Cooper is relishing a return to fullback and the rarity of playing in the same position in two successive Tests.
But he says he’ll be just as happy to go back to the wing or into the centres.
“It’s always nice to play in the same position back to back weeks,” he said.
“But there’s always injuries and changes, so you can’t get too focussed on playing the one position because reality is, it’s not going to happen.”
Albo
Guest
Gits started the trend by consistently running across field and giving it to AAC with 3 guys on top of him. He's the first guy in a team you'd pick, even on the bench, because bad form or not he's going to cover almost every position profficiently and with a smile on his face. You'll never see him run on as a replacement or shift into another position mid game and think "ah well, we're stuffed now".
Jutsie
Guest
I dont know I think AAC's form has been good for NSW but the game plan coupled with the barnes/halanghahu not distributing properly on top of him being moved around every game (like at ACT last year) means his good form has been wasted.
Sprigs
Guest
I thought AAC was great in the Test against the Welsh.
Richie McCaw
Guest
It’s a totally different environment. A new program, new shape, a lot of new faces. It’s relatively easy to put your Super 15 losses behind you and concentrate on your job within the national team". - He sounds surprised? What does he mean relatively easy? As far as I'm concerned they might as well be two different sports. International rugby is it's own beast, In my opinion even if you lost every game for 5 years in Super rugby it wouldn't (shouldn't) have any bearing on your national team. Everything is at a premium at that level (or it should be), pride, passion, pace, etc so why would you drag your provincial rubbish into your national team anyway? I mean this both ways as well, just look at Ireland's provincial form before the first All Black test this year, they were fantastic but it almost seemed that they thought that mean't something and only after they lost they conceded that international rugby is totally different. In my opinion you can't look to lower levels of rugby to garner confidence or belief in higher levels, you just have to believe you can win every time under every situation with whoever is beside you. As one of my favourite poems says "Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day!".
Rob from Brumby Country
Guest
Yep, it's amazing how much a change of jersey can affect a player. It's especially dramatic if one of the jerseys in question is a certain sky-blue...