OPINION – Australia’s only two sides to make the Super 15 play-offs, the Brumbies and the Waratahs may have suffered grimly familiar pastings at the hands of their New Zealand foes in their semi-final clashes, however Michael Cheika’s Wallabies look a far stronger proposition now than they did 12 months ago when he guided the Tahs to glory over Richie McCaw’s Crusaders in an epic Super Rugby final. With the 2014 Waratahs outperforming all Australian Super Rugby teams in 2015, why the sudden cause for optimism for the national team ahead of the sport’s marquee event?
World Cup pedigree
Statistically speaking, results from the last four year cycle suggests all other countries barring the All Blacks should save their respective unions copious amounts of cash and not bother heading to England in September. Since lifting their second crown at a hysterical Eden Park four years ago, the Kiwis have won 38 of 42 matches, drawing two and losing two with only Australia and England managing to break their stranglehold within the period.
However, despite encouraging omens for England with five of the seven previous World Cup hosts having reached the final and three going on to win the William Webb-Ellis Trophy, no side has greater pedigree at the World Cup than Australia. The Wallabies rank equal to New Zealand in the big one having won it twice, come 2nd once, 3rd once and 4th on another occasion. When the World Cup going gets tough, the Wallabies tend to get going.
Of course, this current Australia side has far more imponderables than the superb 1999 cup-winning team containing Wallaby luminaries, Tim Horan, Matt Burke, Joe Roff and their captain colossus John Eales but Cheika is quietly building a squad endowed with wondrous young talent and proven experienced performers. With three of the world’s top six sides in Pool A, the group of death has never looked so daunting. England and Wales, you’ve been warned.
The ARU thinking outside the box
It’s been the familiar downfall of recent Wallaby sides that should their star performers be absent, their secondary options are not up to the rigours of top class international rugby. This could be changing at a rather inopportune moment for the other Pool A contenders.
With England staunchly standing by their decision to refuse to select anyone not plying their trade in England, the ARU’s stance has been rather more creative. Their cunning introduction of the 60-cap rule allows grizzled Test Match veterans now based abroad to be eligible for selection, provided they’ve spent at least seven years within the Australian system.
Conveniently this perfectly reflects the credentials of Top 14 stars Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell who have both been hugely influential in Toulon’s seismic rise from cashed-up giant to three-time kings of Europe in successive seasons. Both were named in Cheika’s provisional 40-man squad last week ahead of the truncated Rugby Championship which starts on July 17.
Squad depth
Despite Giteau’s wonderful form in France and his undoubted back line utility value, it says everything about this current Wallaby unit that his presence is far from guaranteed in the match day squad when South Africa come calling at Suncorp Stadium in a weeks time.
If Giteau is to add to his 92 Test Match caps, he will likely have to do it in a midfield role with Bernard Foley and Quade Cooper battling for stand-off responsibilities. However, breaking up the formidable centre pairing of Tevita Kuridrani, the stand-out performer in the Brumbies 29-9 reverse against the Hurricanes and Matt Toomua is a daunting one.
Elsewhere in a back line laced with attacking talents, Israel Folau has the potential to set the tournament alight. Seemingly sharing the same propensity for code-hoping as Sonny Bill Williams after stints in the NRL and AFL, Folau has now committed his future to the ARU and has been ever-present for the Wallabies since making his debut in 2013, racking up 17 tries in 29 straight appearances. Whilst the mercurial Will Genia has struggled to look good in a woeful Queensland side, the World Cup could be just the tonic the live wire scrum half is seeking to rekindle former glories. He’ll have to see off incumbent Nick Phipps first though.
Another rugby league convert Joe Tomane has enjoyed a stellar 2015 and looks much improved since his fumbling act against the British and Irish Lions two years ago. Add Australian stalwart Adam Ashley-Cooper and the returning Mitchell to the Wallaby melting pot and this side looks capable of tries by the bucket-load.
Alarmingly for England and Wales, their much-maligned forward pack now seems far from a push over with emerging talents Paul Alo-Emile and Scott Sio adding to Cheika’s front row options. That the former has been recruited by the French champions Stade Francais next season speaks volumes for his stature in a competition that tends to dote on destructive scrummagers.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this Australia side is the presence of arguably the two best open side flankers in the world in Michael Hooper and David Pocock. That one of these masters of the breakdown will be warming the bench is a frightening thought for all other foes when a match enters its dying embers.
The perfect warm-up
Whilst England fly out to Denver next week in a bid to build unprecedented fitness levels at their high-altitude Colorado training base, Australia will be preparing to welcome the Springboks to Brisbane in their opening Rugby Championship match on July 18. Sandwiched between playing both South Africa and New Zealand at home, the Wallabies fly to Mendoza to play the rapidly improving Pumas who upset Australia at the same venue to close out last year’s Rugby Championship.
Surely even the ARU couldn’t have dreamt up a more fitting schedule to get Hooper’s men match-fit and match sharp ahead of their bow at the Millennium Stadium on September 23 against Fiji.
Whilst England will play France home and away before naming their World Cup squad on August 31 ahead of a final hit-out against two-time defending Six Nations champions Ireland, such fixtures could lack the intensity of tournament play that the southern hemisphere sides annually embrace at this time of year.
England’s 62-5 demolition job of a second-string Welsh side in August 2007 was an example of a warm-up match rendered almost pointless ahead of their trip to France. That England were humbled 36-0 to eventual final foes South Africa in the group phase suggested they’d been under-cooked in their preparations under the ad hoc stewardship of Brian Ashton. The chances of Australia being underdone when they visit Twickenham on October 3, seems increasingly unlikely.