Wallabies coach Michael Cheika likely to stick with club-based halves pairing
NICK Phipps and Bernard Foley. Will Genia and Quade Cooper. Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is reluctant to mix-and-match so close to the World Cup.
Wallabies
Don't miss out on the headlines from Wallabies. Followed categories will be added to My News.
TIME is so critically short before the Rugby World Cup that the Wallabies are facing the reality that their options in the halves come only as package deals. It has to be Bernard Foley with Nick Phipps or a Quade Cooper-Will Genia alliance.
Blending four such established players might have benefits on a long tour or 18 months out but the Wallabies have only five lead-in Tests and two easier World Cup games against Fiji and Uruguay to hit their peak this year.
Everything is aimed at a supreme performance against hosts England at their Twickenham fortress on October 3, which is one of the biggest pool clashes across the 28-year history of the World Cup.
PAYTO & PANDA: Forget money, we owe debt of gratitude to Pacific
DWYER: Giteau should be Wallabies No 10
Wallabies boss Michael Cheika admitted his halves most likely would come as a proven pair, which is not to under-rate Brumbies Nic White, Christian Lealiifano and Matt Toomua being in camp as well.
“No doubt you can mix-and-match but the logic is to try to couple them (as established pairs) where possible,’’ Cheika said after another intense 15-on-15 game simulation in camp on the Sunshine Coast.
“Guys are used to playing with each other and combinations are everything.’’
Cheika employed that approach on the tour of Europe last year with Genia and Cooper used off the bench late in Tests against France and Ireland behind Phipps and Foley.
“You throw in a Matt Giteau from a totally different scene (coming from French rugby) and it gives us some very interesting playmaking options,’’ Cheika said.
“Gits played mainly as a No.12 in Europe. He’s a running threat, not just a distributor, so I’d say he would more likely be an inside centre in our thinking.’’
Giteau finished training yesterday at inside centre, outside Cooper and Genia. Incumbent five-eighth Foley was slipped in and out of different backline make-ups.
There is no doubt Giteau’s reliable boot, or that of winger Drew Mitchell, are valuable assets to consider for a backline that needs a left-foot kicking option.
Cheika and new backs mentor Steve Larkham have parachuted halfbacks, five-eighths and inside centres into different combinations all week to get accustomed to an attacking shape all players say is further advanced because of squad meetings during Super Rugby.
Ten players will be trimmed today to reach a 30-man squad but no player has a feel for the make-up of the starting side to face South Africa on Saturday week at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
“We have zero idea of the team and we’ve seen different nine or 10 combinations and centre pairings working at training all week,’’ winger Rob Horne said.
NSW-bred duo Horne and Ben McCalman felt the State of Origin pain of the Blues’ 52-6 thrashing at the hands of Queensland when they watched in the Wallabies team room, but they took a lesson from it.
“Before the decider, everyone expected it to be close,’’ McCalman said. “It just shows that the work you don’t see off the field, attitude and getting stuck in in defence like the Queenslanders did knocking back the big NSW forwards is where it starts.’’