Five pre-season questions to kick off the Australian rugby year

Having watched a lot of cricket but played not enough golf over the holiday period, I forced myself to start thinking about rugby again over the weekend.

It seems only right that I open up for 2018 with the only thing that really comes to mind at this time of year: questions.

What’s the biggest conundrum for each set of Australian fans coming into the new season?

Does the Karmichael Hunt situation open the door for Quade Cooper at the Queensland Reds?
You’d have thought so, but given it’s been well over two weeks since Hunt was stood down for drugs charges, it’s starting to feel like a case of the longer it goes on, the longer the odds of a Cooper reprieve.

An injection of experience should be a good thing in what is shaping like a very young backline, and while there would certainly be long-term benefits in throwing the young pups in the deep end and seeing how they go, is Super Rugby really the place to be doing that? Cooper himself might be the best person to answer that, if you let him reminisce back to the Eddie Jones days.

But the thing is, even Brad Thorn knows that young blokes take time not just to mature as players, but to properly gel as combinations; Thorn has experienced exactly that in his time with Queensland Country in the NRC and many of the same players in the Reds Under-20s side.

Even if you turned him into a fulltime fullback, Cooper’s experience – not to mention his ability to read the play and spot opportunities – could be invaluable. Of course, he may not want to be that experienced head. Does he even want to play for the Reds this year?

In which case, what are the Reds’ uncontracted fullback options? Perhaps Thorn already has his man. Patrick James is a well-built, but pacy fullback with a huge boot, and just happened to wear the Country No.15 in last year’s NRC Championship win. He wouldn’t be the worst option at all.

AAP Image/Dave Hunt

Where can the Waratahs possibly improve after minimal squad changes for 2018?
The thing about starting the rugby year with questions in the third week of January is that not all answers are obvious – or even apparent! That’s the case for the Waratahs right at the moment.

We’re not going to know if they have made any improvements until the first few rounds; we might see something in the trials, but we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve seen new approaches from teams in late January, only to see them return to same old, same old in Round 1.

Certainly, the addition of locks Rob Simmons and Tom Staniforth should make a world of difference to the Tahs set piece. The return of Kurtley Beale should give them more creativity in midfield, just as the recruitment of Alex Newsome and Curtis Rona should give them more strike power out wide.

But are we confident enough to call it, on January 16?

Whatever the answer, the Waratahs need to find improvements on 2017, and they need to show it from the outset. It was really only the whole Super Rugby strength-by-contraction debacle last year that saved them from the deeper scrutiny that they really deserved.

Can the Brumbies find the backline strike to match the forwards power?
Well, maybe, but it might all depend on how they shape their midfield.

Certainly, on paper, it looks like the Brumbies are well-catered in the forwards to cover for the losses of Scott Fardy, Jarrad Butler, and Jordan Smiler.

The return of one of the greatest opensiders to ever pull on a jersey is handy, no doubt, but ex-Western Force wrecking ball Isi Naisarani could be the buy of the year.

But the forwards have been the Brumbies’ strength in recent seasons anyway, and it’s out wide that they need to show that they made inroads. Remember, only four teams scored fewer tries last season.

So why does it depend on their shape? Well, Christian Lealiifano has been starring at flyhalf for Irish club Ulster in the Pro14 and Champions Cup, but he’s no certainty to wear the Brumbies No.10 on his return to Canberra. It might be that he’s the key at inside centre to unlocking the attacking weapons further out.

And the weapons are there; Tevita Kuridrani will be the first-choice No.13, obviously, but there’s an abundance of back-three options in James Dargaville, Andy Muirhead, Henry Speight, new recruits Chance Peni and James Verity-Amm, and fullback Tom Banks. Kyle Godwin’s not being overlooked either; I’m still trying to work out where he fits into the first XV.

AAP Image/Dean Lewins

Who will the Rebels leave out for Round 1?
It might not have been keeping Dave Wessels awake at night over Christmas, but it might start to very soon.

What a quality squad he’s assembled. And if the rumours are true, what a bloody enormous training squad he’s assembled for the pre-season!

From the current 45 listed players – and that’s not including a number of other uncontracted players known to have made their way to Melbourne for the pre-season – I count five props, two hookers, four locks, six backrowers, three scrumhalves, one flyhalf (and two very promising deputies), four centres, and six back-three players who would all look at home in the starting side.

How do you get 31 down to 23, let alone a starting XV? I don’t know, but I wish Wessels good luck in doing it. Some genuine Super Rugby players are going to be stuck in the ‘civvies’ talking to the corporate suites for the first few rounds.

Recognising what’s led to it, it’s time to start getting excited, Rebels fans.

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What is Rugby Australia’s plan for keeping the game healthy in Western Australia?
This might – or should – be among the higher priorities on new CEO Raylene Castle’s to-do list now that she has the feet under the desk in the corner office.

And that’s not to say that I want Castle to come out tomorrow and proclaim, “This is our roadmap for the game in the west”, but Rugby Australia need to make it known in the immediate future that the health of the game in Western Australia is still very much part of their planning.

Whether that’s endorsement of ‘Twiggyball’, the Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship set for a March 2019 start, or allowances for former players to return to the reclaimed Western Force side for the NRC this year, whatever. It just needs to be made clear that the pathways remain open for the talented players in WA. And we know they’re there, because they were coming through.

There’s a future-proofing element to this, too; if a trans-Tasman competition becomes the basis for a completely revamped Super Rugby from 2021, you can bet the broadcasters will raise the idea of a team in another major time zone.