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Opinion
As the team lists displayed on screen, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person who had underestimated the strength of the Japan XV for Australia A’s first match of their three-match tour in Tokyo on Saturday night.
I had admittedly missed the team when first named, so as the graphic started rolling, the quality of names became apparent as quickly as the tally of caps racked up.
Atsushi Sakate upfront. Lappies Labuschagne on the side. Michael bloody Leitch at No.8! Coaches Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown up in the box. 13 Brave Blossoms and 196 Test caps in the starting XV.
This was a really good Japanese side, and it was no wonder the Prince Chichibu was heaving.
So there will be plenty of satisfaction within the Australia A camp that they were able to grind back into the contest and kick away in the last 20 minutes to win 34-22.
Mark Nawaqanitawase will get plenty of headlines for his excellent finishing off the bench – “World Cup bolter” was out there yesterday – and so will Ben Donaldson for the way he put his stamp on the game after the break.
Jock Campbell was really good, Langi Gleeson’s meteoric star continues to rise, and Ryan Lonergan recovered well from a bit of a scratchy start, too.
Locks Nick Frost and Cadeyrn Neville would have received ticks from both A coach Jason Gilmore and Wallabies mentor Dave Rennie watching on from home. Ned Hanigan looked pretty strong too, in what would have been his first game in a good while.
Ned Hanigan playing for the Wallabies. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
All of them will have done their Spring tour selection no harm, and more will emerge in the follow-up games this Saturday and next. Tom Banks is set to return from that nasty arm break, and Gilmore confirmed on Thursday that Tane Edmed will play as well.
And that’s the whole point, obviously.
Yes, this tour will help get more international game time against the aforementioned quality opposition into more players leading into the World Cup year, but the timing of this tour is almost certainly deliberate to allow guys to play themselves into a Spring tour ticket.
With the final A game on Friday October 14, it’s easy to see the touring squad being named that weekend, gathering for a week of training before heading straight to Edinburgh for another week of preps, before facing Scotland at Murrayfield on October 30.
But more than playing themselves onto the plane in a few weeks’ time, it’s going to be just as important for guys on the ‘A’ tour to stand out for when the inevitable injury replacements are called for.
On last year’s Spring tour, five players were called up just in the three weeks the Wallabies were in the UK. This time around, they’re playing five Tests and with two outside the prescribed World Rugby window, it can’t be assumed that all replacement will be European-based as four of the five last year were.
And when we again consider the 30-plus injuries recorded over the course of this year, and that up to 14 players plus James O’Connor would still be unavailable this week, the need for injury cover becomes clearer.
Six players were injured or concussed in the two most recent Bledisloe Cup games alone.
Gilmore – also in line for a national call-up, filling the vacant defence role temporarily played by Laurie Fisher for the home leg of The Rugby Championship – said last week that the communication between coaching teams has been regular and will remain so over the next two weeks in Japan.
“We’re in contact constantly,” Gilmore said.
“We discussed what the squads look like and what minutes that we need to play the boys.
“Having said that, Dave is pretty good, he lets us run our own show, but there’s a Spring tour and World Cup coming up that we’re going to be conscious of with these Wallabies boys as well.
“There is regular my texts and phone calls and emails across all of the Wallabies staff. There’s a good connection between the two programs.”
Rennie himself has expressed similar sentiments in recent times, praising the likes of Reece Hodge, Fraser McReight and Matt Gibbon for the seamless way they slotted into the Wallabies side, earning Test game time after promotion from the A squad earlier this year.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Gilmore later in that same presser on Thursday echoed the need for the guys on the A tour to quickly work back into a good level of fitness in preparation for the Japan XV games and to then maintain it afterwards as well, knowing that there almost certainly will be call-ups.
But he also said “there’s certainly no point hiding them or being worried about injury” with Spring in mind.
So a good win in Tokyo is an excellent outcome for a squad that wouldn’t have spent a lot of time together beforehand, and comprising a number of guys who hadn’t played a lot of rugby of any description in recent weeks.
Combinations established during the Pacific Nations Cup would’ve been rusty, and that’s how they looked through the first half. But they scrapped their way back, twice hitting back within minutes after Japan scored, before taking the lead with 20 to play and finishing the job.
The big test now will be to do it all over again against whoever Joseph and Brown roll out in Game 2, knowing the Japanese coaches are using these games are using these games for Spring Tour preparations themselves.
But if the Australia A side can do it again, then more stocks will rise and more Spring tour headlines will be created.
And that’s obviously going to be handy, because you’d have to think all kinds of options will be explored after the Wallabies’ disappointing fade-out to the home Tests component of the international rugby year.