No Nathan Sharpe, Kurtley Beale, Digby Ioane, Tatafu Polota-Nau. The list goes on and on.
The Wallabies line-up to take on Argentina in the wooden spoon Rugby Championship Test in Rosario on Saturday will bear scant resemblance to the side that played the corresponding Rugby Championship final round game at the same venue last year.
There are just four forwards from the 2012 starting line-up backing up – props Ben Alexander and James Slipper, flanker Michael Hooper and lock Sitaleki Timani – and not a single back.
In fact, there isn’t a back amongst the entire current Wallabies squad who was in Rosario when Australia triumphed 25-19 on October 6 last year.
Retirement, injury, players shifting overseas and poor form have contributed to the high turnover of players in a Wallabies team struggling badly for form and results.
A scrappy 14-13 home win over Argentina has been their only success in the championship amid heavy losses home and away to both the All Blacks and Springboks following the 2-1 home series loss to the Lions which ended Robbie Deans’ coaching reign.
One worrying constant lingers from Deans’ time – the inability to score multiple tries. They’re still averaging just one try a game under new coach Ewen McKenzie.
That’s the backdrop as McKenzie’s men go into Saturday’s game needing to win to avoid the ignominy of finishing last in the southern hemisphere competition.
Veteran front-rower Alexander believes experimenting and adjusting to different playing patterns under McKenzie has taken time.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it,” said Alexander of the team’s muddling form.
“There’s a new coach in Ewen (McKenzie) and we’re changing a fair bit how we play.
“You’ve seen a lot of different styles from us with mixed success as we try new things to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
“Hopefully soon something will click.”
But Alexander feels the form slump isn’t a sudden occurrence under McKenzie, and that Wallabies haven’t played well for almost a year, though wins helped to mask that.
“If you look at our results from the second half of last year we didn’t play great rugby but we were still winning.
“We won here, we drew with the All Blacks, we had a terrible game against France but still won the last three games on our Spring tour.
“We’ve been playing some great opposition this year but we haven’t played well and we need to be better.
“We’re letting a lot of people down, ourselves included.”
Alexander said the team hadn’t contemplated losing to Argentina and the ramifications of it and said they were just concentrating on transferring their hard work in training to game time.
“We’re not thinking about that, we’re just thinking about playing well and the results will look after themselves.”
Alexander said they planned to watch some video of last year’s game to try to give the newcomers a taste of playing at the sell-out Estadio Gigante de Arroyito cauldron.
He rated it as one of his favourite wins of his career and said the team could use the volatile atmosphere to pump themselves up.
“It was a unique experience, it was the best atmosphere I’ve been a part of in the warm-up.
“It’s chockers and they’re right on top on so it’s unbelievable.
“The fans are just so loud and passionate and it generally lifts the home side but can lift us as well.”
Chivas
Guest
I love it... I stealing some of these... Twits for tweets, click.. Of a service revolver, and the saying describing water to a drowning man... Thanks, best thread for some time.
Squirrel
Guest
BA for captain, he is funnier than Gomer Pyle. Lucky the ref was kind to us last test. They must feel sorry for us. Give BA a top up.
Two Eyed Cyclop
Roar Guru
"twits (is that the right word)" Got it in one Temba, whole bunch of them.
Steve B
Guest
Slipper. With Benn Robbo as loosey. Easy.
Squirrel
Guest
Ill watch the wallaby game for a laugh at our scrums. Come on Argies push overs all day. 2 pushover tries and a yellow card against the wallabies. I wish the argies had a good backline.
TembaVJ
Roar Guru
I understand the "love" for BA but if he is dropped, who will replace him? Ewen should ban all media interview by all players except the captain. The ARU needs to hire a team spokes person to deal with the media. All twitter accounts need to be monitored and restricted to not rugby related twits (is that the right word) Facebooks and webpages restricted too. Its time to put an end to players talking to the media. They can express themselves on the field only.
Chan Wee
Guest
1. Tony Woodcock (103) 2. Andrew Hore (80) 3. Charlie Faumuina (12) 4. Brodie Retallick (19) 5. Samuel Whitelock (46) 6. Liam Messam (25) 7. Richie McCaw – captain (119) 8. Kieran Read (56) 9. Aaron Smith (20) 10. Aaron Cruden (24) 11. Julian Savea (16) 12. Ma’a Nonu (83) 13. Conrad Smith (74) 14. Ben Smith (20) 15. Israel Dagg (32) Reserves: 16. Dane Coles (9) 17. Wyatt Crockett (18) 18. Ben Franks (27) 19. Steven Luatua (4) 20. Sam Cane (11) 21. Tawera Kerr-Barlow (9) 22. Beauden Barrett (12) 23. Charles Piutau (5)
atlas
Guest
a point on caps, and relevance yes, ABs may have 8-900 caps - but eg for this weekend - 459 of them are held by 5 players (and if Carter were playing add almost another 100 to that v Cruden's 24) in times when a player can get 14 caps in a single season, another 12 in the 23 have under 20 test caps - many in their first or second season at international level It's getting that old/new balance right
ryan
Guest
Is Ben Alexander the best prop in the world?... no, but he certainly knows how to give inspirational speeches.
rob
Guest
Your first line I like, now back to the future, the Wallabies? Where to from here? It reminds me of that great line uttered by Jack, "I'm drowning and your describing the water" The Swannies will be just fine, something I truly wish I could say for the Wallabies
Red Kev
Guest
The Swans are a great club who have built cross-code admiration for the "no d*heads" policy that they have just thrown away to the tune of $10M to the largest walking phallus capable of speech in the AFL since Warwick Capper retired.
Ibika
Guest
Seriously can not believe the team released by em today.. One change ..not one change in the forwards???. Simply breathtaking link.. It's going to be a long couple of years.. The Argentinians will hopefully cane this rabble..
rob
Guest
An opinion or statement of fact? Nevertheless Franklin is hardly a one man team, and the Swannie systems will sort him, something the Wallabies structure was unable or unwilling to do with your mentioned chums dear chap. Scoff or scuff the Swannies club does not deserve your derision based on quite a few measures imo. but good to share a line or two with you, let's hope reality breaks sooner rather than later for our men in gold
coodabeenawesome
Guest
Missed the game last week but everything was summed up for me when I watched a replay of the Tomane elbowing, two steps behind was Benny A our T head rock / hard man squealing to the ref ala Al Baxter... just embarrassing.
Steve B
Guest
If things don't improve soon, something sure will click, but it might be the hammer on my service revolver just before I go postal.
Two Eyed Cyclop
Roar Guru
So is not all bad then Rob :-)
Two Eyed Cyclop
Roar Guru
Sorry M.O.C. the term has already been reserved and patented by Hopoate :-) You'll have to think of something else Rootcounter perhaps?
mania
Guest
agree TEC had me laughing and scratching my head at the same time. benny just confirms those prop sterotypes that they're all dullards. ben does more damage with his mouth than he does on the field.
Two Eyed Cyclop
Roar Guru
Beat me to it Mania, translation "we haven't got a clue and hoping we might fluke something". Quote of the year for me.
M.O.C.
Roar Guru
Haha - there is a tool called a "penetrometre for measuring how hard the ground is...perhaps this should be BAs nickname...."The Penetrometre" - sounds quite intimidating.