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Ewen McKenzie has recognised Liam Gill, one of Super Rugby’s best pilferers, for the clash with the Italians in Turin at the weekend.
Better on the bench than sitting in the grandstand twiddling his thumbs, and hopefully the 21-year-old will get plenty of game time.
Had Gill been on the bench last weekend for the last 30 minutes when Scott Fardy was carted off with concussion, the result at Twickenham may well have been different.
We will never know.
Fardy’s out for Italy, giving McKenzie a chance to experiment with long-term lock Rob Simmons returning from injury to wear Fardy’s number six jersey.
Simmons has only played at six for part of one international among his 33 caps, but there’s some shrewd thinking in McKenzie’s thinking.
He will have four big men up front, which will add punch to the lineouts where Stephen Moore has vastly improved his lineout feeding accuracy, and Simmons will add weight and experience to the scrum, where the Italians eat opposition packs for breakfast.
Simmons and Horwill are both 200cm and 115kgs, Ben Mowen, who remains skipper, is 195 and 107, while the biggest of the quartet Sitaleki Timani is at 203cm and 120kg.
That’s a lot of manpower to throw around, and providing they do just that, the Wallabies will be very competitive up front.
Competitive with quick, and controlled ball, thank you.
That could make the difference to half-back Will Genia returning to form, a vital part of the Wallabies’ overall performance.
Genia in command and the Wallabies are in command out the back, especially Quade Cooper, who relishes room to move to dictate.
Give him space and the entire backline will lift.
So far inside centre Matt Toomua and his outside support Tevita Kuridrani have been choked with the defence and the ball arriving together.
That leaves precious little time or room for wingers Adam Ashley-Cooper and Nick Cummins, and even less for Israel Folau.
If he can find some space, the Italians will be dizzy with the speed of the full-back, and how difficult he is to tackle.
We haven’t seen the best of Folau yet, he has plenty up his sleeve, and the more he feels at home with the 15-man code, the more we’ll see what is up that sleeve.
I rate this backline as it is, with Toomua settling in nicely, and Kuridrani starting to recognise that he too has a fair bit of muscle to throw around in both attack and defence,
The Wallabies are fortunate to have a winger-centre like Joe Tomane on the bench replacing Bernard Foley who can count himself a tad unlucky to be back in the stand.
Now the Grand Slam door has been slammed shut, the Wallabies can work on their attacking positives and give it a good solid crack.
Kiwi Glen Jackson will be the referee, and he’s far keener on open play than the entertainment-killer George Clancy last week.
It’s time for some real Wallaby rugby starting from the front tow of James Slipper, Moore, and Ben Alexander, right the way through to Folau.
And in between let’s have Michael Hooper getting dirty in the tight stuff and very little, if any, of him seagulling among the backs.
I still believe in these Wallabies, but it’s high time they believed in themselves.
Let Turin decide that.