- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Ewen McKenzie has announced his first Wallabies squad for 2014 ahead of the three Test match series against France next month.
There are two experienced exclusions in Benn Robinson and Saia Fainga’a who have 95 caps between them. Neither player has been in good form so their exclusions are not a surprise to me.
The four uncapped players in the squad are Nathan Charles, Luke Jones, Will Skelton and Sam Carter.
No captain has been named at this stage and it appears that the starting team will be selected first, then a captain will be named form within that team rather than naming a captain now. I think that approach makes a lot of sense.
25-year old Charles and 24-year-old Carter are the only real bolters in the squad, although many have been calling for their inclusion. The inclusion of Jones and Skelton was widely assumed.
For the second year running Robinson has been left out of the first Wallabies squad of the season by his former coach at the Waratahs.
With James Slipper, Scott Sio and Pek Cowan all included in the squad and Toby Smith also an option Robinson must be no better than fourth or fifth choice loosehead prop. It will be very hard for him to make it back into the squad from here and he may have played his last test.
Not surprisingly Ben Mowen, Kane Douglas and Hugh Pyle were not considered as they are all leaving Australia at the end of this season to play in Europe.
Given that decision the pool of players McKenzie could select from was diminished combined with injuries to David Pocock, Quade Cooper, Joe Tomane and Kyle Godwin.
The squad of 32 includes 19 forwards and 13 backs and McKenzie has selected mainly experienced players with only four of the squad having no previous Test experience. The squad has an average age of just under 26 and a combined 831 Tests between them.
For those of you that are concerned with which Super Rugby team the players come from there are 10 Brumbies, 11 Waratahs, 5 from the Force, 2 Rebels and 4 from the Reds.
The squad has clearly been selected on form with 26 of the players coming from the three Australian teams in contention for the Super Rugby finals – the Brumbies, Waratahs and Force.
The squad is due to come together on Sunday, June 1 which will result in only a few days of on-field training before the first Test against France to be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday, June 7.
As a result it is expected that McKenzie will select a starting team for the first Test largely based on the team that performed well on the 2013 end of year tour to Europe. However, McKenzie made it clear that the team for the first Test has not been selected at this time meaning that players still have time to impress in the final two rounds of Super Rugby before a break for the mid-year international window.
Toby Smith, who was born in Australia but has been playing in New Zealand prior to joining the Rebels this year was widely tipped to make the squad but has missed out.
Carter, Skelton and Jones will compete for the lock positions against Horwill and Rob Simmons.
Michael Hooper and Scott Fardy are certain selections in the Test team. Fardy has been listed as a backrower meaning he is less likely to be considered at lock so he and Hooper are likely to be rewarded for their continued good form with the number six and seven jerseys.
That will leave Wycliff Palu, Scott Higginbotham and Ben McCalman to compete for the number eight jersey. Higginbotham is also a contender for the number six jersey if Fardy is chosen as a lock. McCalman has been rewarded for his strong form with the Force in Super Rugby this season.
Matt Hodgson has been recalled to a Wallaby squad at the age of 32 and as the only other specialist number seven included alongside Hooper he is a strong chance to be included in the match day squad. He played his last Test for the Wallabies in 2011 against South Africa.
Angus Cottrell, the 23-year old grandson of former Wallabies captain Nev Cottrell was tipped to be included but has also missed out.
As expected Will Genia, Nic White and Nick Phipps are the scrum-half options and it will be a very close selection call as to whether Genia or White starts in the first Test.
Matt Toomua is listed as a centre and is a certain starter at number twelve with Kurtley Beale and Bernard Foley listed at the fly-half options. If not selected at fly-half Beale is likely to grab a bench spot given his versatility across a number of positions.
Other centre options include Christian Leali’ifano and Tevita Kuridrani. Both Pat McCabe and Adam Ashley-Cooper have been named as back-three players almost certainly making the starting centres for the first test, Toomua and Kuridrani.
It’s great to see McCabe make a return after suffering two broken necks in the last twelve months. He’s really living up to his ‘Chuck Norris’ nickname.
The popular Nick Cummins probably leads the charge for the wing spots with other options included being McCabe, Rob Horne and Ashley-Cooper.
No doubt Israel Folau already has the number fifteen jersey in his locker and McKenzie has not included another specialist fullback in the squad.
Henry Speight, Tom English, Paddy Ryan and Cadeyrn Neville have been invited to train with the squad in the first week to broaden the base of players familiar with the team.
“By adding four additional players to the group for the opening week we’ll get to learn more about some guys, while they get to experience a different environment and test themselves at the elite level”, McKenzie said.
The full Wallabies squad is:
Props
Ben Alexander
Pek Cowan
Sekope Kepu
Scott Sio
James Slipper
Hookers
Nathan Charles
Stephen Moore
Tatafu Polota-Nau
Locks
Sam Carter
James Horwill
Luke Jones
Rob Simmons
Will Skelton
Backrow
Scott Frady
Scott Higginbotham
Matt Hodgson
Michael Hooper
Ben McCalman
Wycliff Palu
Scrum-halves
Will Genia
Nick Phipps
Nic White
Fly-halves
Kurtley Beale
Bernard Foley
Centres
Christian Leali’ifano
Tevita Kuridrani
Matt Toomua
Back Three
Adam Ashley-Cooper
Nick Cummins
Israel Folau
Rob Horne
Pat McCabe