But often these players have been picked by multiple Wallabies coaches, whose job is it is to analyse, review, re-watch and strategise. These coaches have risen to the top of their craft. Maybe, just maybe, they know more about who should play for the Wallabies than you do.

I’m not saying you can’t criticise and voice those opinions, but try to understand where the coach is coming from first.

For those who are continually baffled by certain selections, let me explain why certain Wallabies players that fans love to scapegoat are picked.

Rob Simmons
Picked by Robbie Deans, Ewen McKenzie, Michael Cheika and Dave Rennie

He’s played 100 Tests. But all I hear is stuff about how bad he is. You don’t get to 100 Tests under four coaches by being bad. He is picked because he’s been our best lineout jumper and caller most of his career. He is just a menace in the lineout. Apparently he’s a good scrummager (how do you tell if a lock is a good scrummager though?), his tackling is reliable and his passing is underrated. Granted, his speed, agility and carrying have always been weaknesses in his game, and it just so happens that these are the aspects that people focus on the most when discussing World Cup semi-final intercept try king Rob Simmons.

(Photo by Jason O’Brien/Getty Images)

Ned Hanigan
Picked by Cheika and Rennie

He was picked by Cheika because he showed a lot of promise in Super Rugby. He is brilliant in the lineout, he is hard running and initially he was quite a popular Wallaby. It was clear early on however he was not ready for Test rugby, yet Cheika kept picking him. This is not his fault. He should not, contrary to some opinions at the time, never be picked again. Sometimes players improve. As of 2020 his game has improved, and he was picked again. But according to many commenters, he was the same old Hanigan that got picked too early and as such he should’ve been discarded forever. Never mind the fact he was one of our best in Auckland fulfilling a role similar to what Scott Fardy used to do. People still despise the fact he’s been picked, purely because of stuff that happened in 2017 and 2018.

Dean Mumm
Picked by Deans and Cheika

He was the old whipping boy of 2016. He was a thoroughly hated rugby player. You can’t even mention his name without people making negative comments on the internet. Yet here is the player who came off the bench in the 2015 World Cup final and was equal top of the tackle count. He was another lineout expert (I’m noticing a trend here, maybe we don’t appreciate the lineout enough?) and a great runner of the ball. He was picked over Fardy in 2016 because Fardy was giving away too many penalties that year (although I would’ve stuck with Fardy). His 2014 try against Argentina is one of the great individual Wallabies tries, and nobody cares about it cause Dean Mumm scored it.

Nick Phipps
Picked by Deans, McKenzie and Cheika

He is probably the most hated of all these players. But you don’t get 72 Tests being bad. The Tahs struggled in 2018 before Phipps took over and suddenly they were a genuine finals threat. Watch over those old games. When Phipps comes on, the forwards get moving. The man had an incredible motor. He gave his all for his country in attack and defence. He looked spent after every game. And this was the bloke who broke the AIS yo-yo test record. Watch some of those galloping runs he made, that flick pass against Samoa last year, and his defensive hustle. While I liked other options over Phipps, he was hardly the rubbish player people made him out to be.

Michael Hooper
Picked by Deans, McKenzie, Cheika and Rennie

This is the most egregious one because he’s clearly our best player. Other countries hype up their young flankers by comparing them to Michael Hooper. He’s not as good a pilferer as David Pocock or George Smith. So what? He’s the best tackler in the world, a dangerous running threat, the fittest bloke in World Rugby, and has had an incredible run with injury. Yet so many Aussies don’t rate him. People will build statues of this man. Yet apparently the lineout was bad because our fourth option was five foot 11. The problem was poor throwing and the inability to create an unopposed target.

Michael Hooper of the Wallabies waits for a TMO decision

(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Plus there’s been a lot of criticism of him as captain. But we do not get to see inside the dressing room, or be out on the field, or run around with the boys on the training paddock. We have no idea what he is like as a leader, apart from his exemplary post-match interviews and press conferences.

Bernard Foley
Picked by McKenzie and Cheika

He is up there percentage wise with the best goal kickers the Wallabies ever had. Do you remember that World Cup we came second? A big part of that was the Ice Man. He usurped Quade Cooper and had years as our number one flyhalf under both McKenzie and Cheika. The 2017 season was the year he received the most criticism yet he had heaps of try assists that year. Rewatch the highlights. He pops up quite a lot. He was a good flyhalf. He created chances, had a pinpoint accurate attacking kicking game that was probably better suited to league than union but was still effective, and he was one of the most beautiful passers of the ball I’ve ever seen. He was probably not the guy to lead us to World Cup glory, but how many players are?

Nic White
Picked by McKenzie, Cheika and Rennie

He kicked the ball when he shouldn’t have in 2014, and we lost the game. He also has had two man-of-the-match performances in two wins over the All Blacks since, which means if we solely put the blame for those results on him, he has a 67 per cent win rate over the All Blacks. I mean, surely we’d take those kind of figures, right?

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