James Slipper to captain Wallabies again after Liam Wright injury blow for second Test against Wales
When Rugby Australia axed the Melbourne Rebels, the Wallabies’ first Test in the city was always going to say much about the rugby community’s response. We will soon find out if the city has turned its back on rugby.
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When Rugby Australia made the decision to axe the Melbourne Rebels in May, the Wallabies’ first Test in the great sporting city was always going to say much about the rugby community’s response.
That will become evident on Saturday night when Australia hosts Wales at AAMI Park in the second Test, but RA is optimistic of a strong turnout.
While some Rebels fans may have made the decision to turn their backs on the game as soon as their franchise was cut from Super Rugby, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is hoping hardcore rugby fans will come to support his team.
“You’ve got a city of five million and there’s a lot of Kiwis in Melbourne so they obviously have a real interest in rugby, and I think Melbourne is probably the biggest supporters of events,” Schmidt said.
“They just love a sporting event and I reckon you could put just about tiddlywinks on at the MCG if it was a really good tiddlywinks competition. I think you’d get people turning up from Melbourne because they just love a sporting contest.
“You get the Australian Open here.
“I came to the World Cup cricket final here, sadly New Zealand got spanked by Australia in the game but on the Thursday following that I went to Carlton versus Richmond and sat in the box with Mick Malthouse and 76,000 people in for a club game.
“I just love the way Melbourne people get behind any sporting occasion.”
What will keep all rugby fans engaged is a winning Wallabies team.
After their 25-16 victory over Wales in the first Test last weekend, the mood is cautiously buoyant.
It was the tonic the Wallabies needed after the nightmare World Cup campaign under Eddie Jones.
But Schmidt makes it clear that this team is far from playing at their optimum level.
“I know they’re good men and certainly driven to play really well for the Wallabies, they’re still finding their feet,” Schmidt said.
“There’s some confidence, but to get that really deep rooted belief in what they’re doing and how they play the game and how they depend on each other - that’s going to take time because those things are embedded in instant decisions where you’re playing with someone.
“I mentioned before the aspect of the game that I love is the interdependence.
“No one can really play the game by themselves or be individually playing the game without the help of others. Even Tom Wright on the weekend, I thought Andrew Kellaway and Josh Flook gave him options on the edge which meant one of the defenders turned out which gave him the corner to take.
“Even when you get a really individual try, you’ve still got other players working either side of you to try to help you out.
“I’ve learned that they’re determined, they want to be as good as they can be.
“But I’ve also had enough experiences to know that it’s still going to take time before they really know each other well enough to have that trust in those microseconds that you get to make decisions.
“I think any team is always a work in progress but sometimes you’re just a little bit further back in that spectrum than getting into the really accelerated high trust environment of a high performance team.”
First time Wallabies captain Liam Wright has been sidelined through injury for the second this match, with veteran James Slipper to lead the team.
Wright’s shoulder injury has caused a backrow reshuffle, with last week’s debutant Charlie Cale handed the starting No. 8 jersey, and Rob Valetini replacing Wright at blindside flanker.
The rest of the starting side from last weekend’s win in Sydney has been retained, but on the bench Ben Donaldson has been recalled as playmaking cover while hooker Josh Nasser is in line for his Test debut, backrower Langi Gleeson and halfback Nic White have also been recalled.
If Nasser takes the field at AAMI Park on Saturday night, he will become the 13th son of a Wallaby to wear the gold jersey, following the path of his father and Wallaby number 685, Brendan.
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Originally published as James Slipper to captain Wallabies again after Liam Wright injury blow for second Test against Wales