Rugby World Cup Wallabies dismiss suggestions selection of only two hookers could come back to bite them
THE Wallabies have dismissed English suggestions they could lose points at the Rugby World Cup if the selection of only two hookers backfires.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Wallabies have dismissed England-inspired suggestions they could lose points at the Rugby World Cup if the selection of only two hookers backfires.
Coach Michael Cheika and newly appointed Wallabies captain James Slipper were forced to again defend their World Cup squad mix after an English newspaper reported Australia and Wales faced points deductions if they couldn’t field two hookers.
The Wallabies, who are preparing to play the USA in Chicago on Sunday morning, are taking just two specialists in Stephen Moore and Tatafu Polota-Nau and have prop Scott Sio acting as cover.
Wales coach Warren Gatland has done likewise with his squad and the risky calls have created waves in the Pool of Death, mostly for England coach Stuart Lancaster.
HANDY:Folau shows off his gridiron skills
The English coach did not pick Dylan Hartley because they thought he would be unavailable for the opening game due to suspensio and that they required three hookers to account for injury.
With obvious motivation, Lancaster and staff have since repeatedly labelled the moves of Australia and Wales as a huge gamble.
“I certainly wouldn’t have changed what we’ve done, no chance,” said Lancaster.
“I didn’t want to take that risk for the country. You have to have sufficient cover in the front row to make sure you have all bases covered.”
The risk was teased out in one English report, which suggested if a collection of calamities struck the hookers of Australia or Wales - with suspension and injury - that they would “receive no sympathy” from World Rugby.
“If teams were ultimately forced to go outside their nominated 31-man squads in order to fulfil safety requirements, however, they could expect a potentially tournament-ruining sanction such as pool stage points being deducted,” a report in the Guardian said.
Unwilling to deal in hypotheticals, World Rugby declined to confirm last night if points deductions were a possibility at the Rugby World Cup.
Cheika said he was uncertain how it would ever get to that point.
“If you have an injury, you would bring a replacement wouldn’t you? I don’t understand how that could happen. We have three players who can play hooker within the squad, and if one of them got injured, we would replace them wouldn’t we?” Cheika said.
“I don’t understand the issue. If someone gets injured, you’d bring a replacement. That’s the case for every team.”
Asked about Lancaster’s comments, Cheika said: “I haven’t read anything about it, so I don’t really know. I am not sure what Stuart Lancaster said, I am picking a team and training. That’s it.”
Like Gatland, Cheika is content to roll the dice on black cats not crossing the path of his hookers. The hypothetical hiccup would involve having a hooker suspended (who can’t be replaced) and then losing another to injury late in the week.
But while most injury replacements can’t play for 48 hours after arriving in England, the Daily Telegraph has learned an important loophole exists on the hooker issue.
World Cup rules and regulations say the 48-hour timeframe can “be reduced” in exceptional circumstances; and one of those circumstances is being able to field six experienced front rowers.
The Wallabies’ only issues would then be having James Hanson close enough to fly into England swiftly - teams are not allowed to carry more than 31 players - and what would Cheika would do if Moore who picked up a short-term injury and he didn’t want to replace him.
Slipper said the Wallabies weren’t even entertaining bad luck.
“We don’t even think about worst case scenarios, we are there to win every game ... we don’t want to think hyopthetically at all. There is no point even going down that path of thinking about injuries and so on,” Slipper said.
Slipper was named on Thursday as the 83rd captain of Australia after Moore was rested for the clash with the USA, along with several other Wallabies stars who’ve logged heavy gametime in the Rugby Championship: Israel Folau, Michael Hooper, Adam Ashley-Cooper and David Pocock.
Slipper is the first prop to captain Australia since John Thornett in 1967.
“It is something that I didn’t expect but it is something I am going to take a lot of pride out of,” Slipper said from the US on Thursday.
“It is definitely very humbling to captain your country. I never thought it would happen to me but I will take it with both hands.”
Kurtley Beale, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Sean McMahon and Kane Douglas will make their first starts of the season, while Rob Simmons also returns.
Toby Smith and Taqele Naiyaravoro will make potential Test debuts off the bench.
“Obviously there have been a few changes but we are definitely not underestimating the US,” Slipper said.
“We have watched quite a bit of their footage and they have strengths all over the team, so we are going to have to be on our game to beat them.”
Originally published as Rugby World Cup Wallabies dismiss suggestions selection of only two hookers could come back to bite them
Reds primed for Super season
The Reds don’t want to waste their good work on a successful pre-season tour of the United Kingdom when they kick-off their Super Rugby Pacific season later this month.
Two-man showdown for Wallabies job as succession plan revealed
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh has laid out the plan to replace Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt – with two leading candidates emerging amid Waugh’s non-negotiables and the deadline to land Schmidt’s successor.