Calm before the World Cup storm for Michael Cheika and his Wallabies

The Wallabies have the pieces required to make history in Japan, and it’s the way they learnt the lessons of the past that will help them forge their future writes Jim Tucker.

Wallabies player James O'Connor is seen during the Australian Wallabies Captains Run at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, Friday, August 16, 2019. The Australian Wallabies player the New Zealand All Blacks in the second Bledisloe Cup on Saturday. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt) NO ARCHIVING

The first indicator that the Wallabies are united for this World Cup bid will be James O’Connor actually appearing at Friday’s formal announcement.

Eight years on, the “Where’s Jimmy?” sleep-in saga still seems astonishing.

The Wallabies are back at the Qantas airport hangar in Sydney where O’Connor was an embarrassing no-show for the 2011 unveiling of Robbie Deans’ Cup squad.

The Wallabies were forced to digitally fake thousands of promotional posters, with his image added to the top left hand corner, because he also missed the official team photo.

James O'Connor has matured to earn this second World Cup. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

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He slept through the alarm on his mobile phone and he copped a one-Test ban.

The incident is worth recounting because today’s line-up of 31 muscular figures will be one of the few periods of perfect calm over the next 10 weeks.

Untimely injuries, yellow card fever, a wayward Wallaby, illness, form fades and so much more will be part of the turbulence.

You have to conquer it all to go deep in a World Cup.

The Wallabies 2019 world cup squad pic.twitter.com/NZ6JJfnwOJ

— Chris Dutton (@BlockaDutton) August 22, 2019

Cheika has picked a very solid squad and it starts with tight five depth as good as any Australian World Cup group.

The 2007 Wallabies who were shunted out of the World Cup by England’s scrum in Marseilles would have loved the five top props picked for Japan.

There’s a big backrow option, a Kurtley Beale or Dane Haylett-Petty choice at fullback to play Wales, two top halfbacks and so on.

You just need Christian Lealiifano or Bernard Foley to really stand tall as playmaker like Foley did in 2015.

(L-R) Scott Sio, Tolu Latu, Allan Alaalatoa and Sekope Kepu are four quality front row players. Picture: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

It has become an obsession to guess when flanker David Pocock will play his first Test minutes of the year. Relax.

The only important thing now is that he doesn’t play too much, too quickly and risk re-injuring his calf.

Playing as a supersub against Samoa and Fiji over the next month makes perfect sense before being assessed for a possible upgrade for the crunch pool game against Wales in Tokyo.

James Slipper’s World Cup recall caps a remarkable comeback. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

O’Connor has matured to earn this second World Cup.

For prop James Slipper, this is a huge comeback from the lonely abyss of mental health issues.

Just to be smiling and feeling like his old self was the win everyone wanted first but now he too has a World Cup he didn’t see happening.

Cheika has backed both. They will play for him.

The Cup quarter-finals will be treacherous for all teams but there is a semi-final look to these Wallabies.