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Considering the meticulous, down-to-the-minute, military-precision planning that goes into professional rugby these days, it was rather surprising to see Twitter light up with the Wallabies XV like it did after lunch yesterday.
Initially, and with the same side coming from so many different sources, outlets, and people, I actually had to double check my inbox I hadn’t missed an incoming media release.
Bulk team-namings like this one was are usually the hallmark of an official announcement, rather than a concerted and co-ordinated leak.
Nevertheless, the official presser is still scheduled for 4:00pm this afternoon, and the team officially released this morning, having been in some degree of ‘confirmed-ness’ for the best part of two days.
I suppose if people are going debate the make-up of the side, one way to ensure the debate at least involves the right players in the right positions is to frame the debate yourself.
Let’s remember, news that Quade Cooper missed both the initial 25-man squad and the ‘Wallaby Six’ that followed ten days later emerged in a similar fashion.
Regardless of who did the leaking and why, the team as ‘named’ has essentially met with universal approval.
There’s a few quibbles about Ben Alexander at tighthead, and that the locks are not proper lineout jumpers, and even that Israel Folau has spent even less time on the wing this year than Berrick Barnes has played all up, but otherwise, my impression has been that most of us are happy.
There have been a lot of “I’m still not sold on O’Connor at 10, but I do rather like this side…”-type comments made online and in the social media air, and that’s probably an admission from those of us making the comments (that one there was mine) that we perhaps weren’t considering the full picture.
I’ll wager those of you who agreed with this comment of mine yesterday, and who worry or worried about James O’Connor at flyhalf were also working off the assumption and/or concern that Pat McCabe would be named at inside centre.
Now that we know Christian Lealiifano will be named for a well-earned and arguably overdue Test debut, we can see why O’Connor was always Robbie Deans’ preference. With a proper playmaking option at inside centre to ignite the outside men, it now makes some sense that Deans wanted a line-running flyhalf, rather than the classic coaching manual-type.
Furthermore, with Berrick Barnes holding his position at fullback from 2012, the Wallabies give themselves three creative types and three strike runners, with O’Connor to flit between both camps, as he tends to do in whichever number he’s wearing.
Lealiifano probably sits in the box seat in this regard, as he does with the Brumbies, and he will largely be playing the same kind of ‘pick when to pass, pick when to run’ game that has been so successful for the Australian Conference leaders.
If anything, he’ll have even more options available to him, as Joe Tomane and Matt Toomua don’t necessarily present the same inside channel threats that Digby Ioane and O’Connor will.
Concerns over what we expected to be a relatively safe attacking gameplan also look rather narrow-minded of us now, and for that Robbie Deans deserves our praise for unveiling more than what we’ve come to know as a one-string bow.
That Ioane-Lealiifano-Adam Ashley-Cooper-Folau combination is as exciting a three-quarter line as I can recall from the Wallabies in a good few years and, after what we’ve seen from the Lions so far on tour, it’s great to see the Wallabies wanting to fight fire with fire, a la the Reds a fortnight ago.
Defensively, this Wallabies XV looks more than capable of replicating both the line speed of the Brumbies on Tuesday night, and the physicality of the Waratahs last Saturday. It will also have the fitness to last the distance and ask questions to the very end.
It shouldn’t leak points anywhere near as easily as it leaks team announcements.
The scrum looks strong, by relative Wallaby standards, and the lineout looks very handy, even if it is down one or two jumpers on what it could be.
Bench personnel could certainly aid this, and I honestly hope we see Hugh McMeniman’s name among the eight names we don’t know yet.
Overall, there is a bloody lot to like about this team, and for the first time in a long time, the naming of a Wallaby side has filled me with a level confidence rather than dread.
Of course, that could be the champagne that is still flowing through the water pipes in Canberra currently, and I could be setting myself up for a mighty fall.
Whatever will be, will be.