- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Wallabies lack a world-class fly half, despite there being many pretenders.
Whether it was Mark Ella in 1984, Grant Fox in 1987, Noddy in 1991 (get well soon!), Steve Larkham in 1999 or Jonny Wilkinson in 2003, great teams have great fly halves.
These players together with likes of Dan Carter, Merthens and others possessed rugby brains and composure in equally large amounts.
Despite many candidates, the Wallabies don’t have a proficient fly half, let alone a world-class pivot that every aspiring rugby team needs if it is to win the Rugby World Cup.
The current Wallabies squad has Quade Cooper (24 years old/72 Super Rugby caps/35 Test caps), Berrick Barnes (26/82/42) and Kurtley Beale (23/78/26) vying for the 10 jersey and the leader of the Wallabies for the next four years. James O’Connor (23/46/45) is next in line but a stop gap option, at best.
Despite upwards of 100 professional games of regional/international rugby against the best teams in the world, none of these players has matured into a great fly half.
They lack the ability to run the team and raise their own performance when under intense pressure. As Kipling said, “If you can keep your head when all about you, yours is the earth and everything that’s in it. And – which is more – you’ll be a man, my son!”
We four have flawed “boys”. It is abundantly clear that none of these players will ever have the rugby brains or the composure to lead the Wallabies to Bledisloe, Lions, Rugby Championship and World Cup success.
Whether it was Barnes’s unedifying huffing and puffing on Saturday evening (something Waratahs fans have grown used to), or Beale moving to first receiver and then running across field as if it was a game of schoolboy touch footy, or Cooper’s psychological implosion in RWC 2011, the evidence is clear and the jury needs to return its verdict.
As my very astute partner pointed out, Deans didn’t select Cooper for the first Bledisloe game in Sydney because he knew that Cooper was not mentally tough enough for Auckland this week.
The Wallabies number 10 shirt, one of the most desirable and famous shirts in Australian and even world sport, is officially vacant.
The applicants are many and include the Waratahs’ Bernard Foley and Sam Lane, Brumbies Zac Holmes, the Reds’ Harris and Ben Lucas, Christian Lealilifano and Matt Toomua or Kyle Godwin of the Force.
Unfortunately, the real candidates are few. Like many recruitment processes, one candidate stands out. Lane, Godwin and Holmes need more game time to demonstrate their wares. Harris, Lucas, Lealilifano (despite his blossoming this year) and Toomua are good but probably not great.
Bernard Foley, at almost 23 years old, is the only real candidate if the job criteria are followed closely. If you are good enough, you are old enough! Harris would be the stand in for Foley.
When he has recovered from his shoulder surgery, make a place on the bench for him. Blood him with increasing game time until he is the starting fly half this time next year.
Robbie Deans must think clearly and be just as brave as the bravest players if he is to uncover the essential world-class fly half.
Follow LeftArmSpinner on Twitter @leftarmspinner.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.