Andrew Slack: Israel Folau deserves spot in Michael Cheika’s ‘Test team’

FOR all the scepticism over his early season provincial form Israel Folau has underlined how indispensable he is for the Wallabies’ starting XV, writes ANDREW SLACK

Israel Folau of the Wallabies is tackled by Finn Russell. Picture: Getty Images

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WALLABIES fans wanted a high-quality Test against Scotland.

By no means did they get it, in either result or performance.

If anyone needed confirmation international rugby is a changed beast, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika provided it last week when he suggested his “Test team” probably would not be finalised until the end of the year.

Considering there’s a bunch of Tests, including a couple against the All Blacks, between now and that last match against Scotland at Murrayfield on November 25, I wonder exactly what we call the 23 players named for each of those nine upcoming Tests, if it’s not the “Test team”.

Am I the only one who doesn’t quite understand?

I guess he meant the combination that he feels best suits our purpose as we look toward the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

I do understand that the RWC is the big banana in the game, and I get that success there is the ultimate goal for every rugby nation, but I never thought it would get to the point where Bledisloe Cup matches were deemed selection trials.

Israel Folau underlined how indispensable he is for the Wallabies’ starting XV. Picture: Getty Images

Oh well, I guess we just need to accept it for what it is and contemplate which individuals in the first two “Tests” of the year have scored early marks for the upcoming end-of-year results. ‘‘Not many’’ is the short answer.

For all the scepticism over his early season provincial form Israel Folau has underlined how indispensable he is for the Wallabies’ starting XV.

I imagine we will see his second try against Scotland yesterday on television promos for months to come.

Adam Coleman, Michael Hooper and Bernard Foley are perhaps the only other individuals who might feel comfortable that they can have a relaxing Christmas.

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With all due respect to Foley’s steadiness and composure, he can probably only feel secure on the back of the lack of competition at No.10.

Will Genia is usually – although not on Saturday – our most effective halfback, but he can’t afford to make the errors he did against the Scots.

As Cheika considers who really deserves to be in our best team, he must surely be looking through the unforced error rate of all his players.

The majority made many unforced mistakes against a Scottish team, which while gutsy and persistent, is not the All Blacks.

If poor kicking, both execution and option-wise, is added to your error statistics, Australian teams at both international and provincial level must be the runaway leaders in that particular category.

Unfortunately, kicking woes are not our only problem.

Saturday afternoon’s Test was a reasonably low-quality affair, particularly if you consider how much ground would need to be made up before being competitive against the likes of New Zealand.