Tim Cronin from RugbyShirts.net reckons the Wallabies’ Super Rugby talent is spread thinner than vegemite on a wafer…
Aspiring Wallabies' players looking to make the squad to face the British and Irish Lions this year began their bid for selection on the weekend, as the Super XV kicked off with an all-Australian round. With no warm-up test matches the Super XV is the sole proving ground for those hunting a green and gold jersey, and coach Robbie Deans will be looking on intently, hoping his top players can reach form quickly and remain injury free.
The build-ups couldn't be more different – while the Northern Hemisphere players are testing themselves at the highest level at the moment, facing quality opposition week in, week out in the Six Nations, the Wallabies' players will have to get match-fit and match-hardened playing Super Rugby, a task made all the more challenging by the fact the Australian conference is unquestionably the weakest of the three Southern Hemisphere groups.
Sure, Warren Gatland's men may be spread around four different teams, but at least the Lions will have assembled on the back of some decent quality football, and will have some time to generate combinations and experience playing with each other when they face the Barbarians in Hong Kong followed by five warm-up games in Australia prior to the first test in Brisbane.
Deans, on the other hand, has a finite amount of talent spread all-too thinly across five sides, of whom realistically only three will play any decent rugby in the coming months. Deans has said he will be looking to expose some of his key players to the Lions in the touring sides' warm-up games, but in reality how many of them will he be prepared to risk?
The Lions' first game on Australian soil is against the Force, a side that will struggle to have more than 1 or 2 players in the mix for test selection. The Reds play the tourists a fortnight out from the first test, which is Deans' best chance to expose some key players to top-level competition, and may, depending on form (and his personal relationship with a certain fly-half) give him a chance to pit his inside halves combination against the visitors. Other than that, its hard to imagine him letting any of his top 22 players take the field for the Waratahs a week out from the Brisbane test, or for the Brumbies mid-week leading up to the first encounter, meaning players like David Pocock, Ben Alexander, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Kurtley Beale, James O'Connor, and Berrick Barnes could all be short of a trot.
In recent years the Australians have been slow to start when the International calendar opens, losing their first tests in in 2011 and 2012 (to Samoa and Scotland respectively), and Deans will be all too aware that his side can't afford a sluggish start to the three-match series this year. It will be a fine balancing act for a coach who knows he has little depth to work with, and it will be interesting indeed to see how Deans manages his key players in the coming months.
Tim Cronin is a Rugby fan and full time writer based in the rubble of the Canterbury Crusaders’ home town, Christchurch. Tim is a part of the Pukeko Sportsteam, where his role is watching, writing, and complaining about all things rugby.
