NSW Waratahs happy to rest their Wallabies stars in World Cup year

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson will be prepared to rest his top players next season to help give the Wallabies the best chance of winning the World Cup later in the year.

Players such as Bernard Foley will be better managed during the 2019 Super Rugby season. Picture: AAP

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson says he’s prepared to rest his top players next season to help the Wallabies’ cause at the World Cup later in 2019.

The Wallabies’ worst season in half a century — where they won just four of their 13 Tests, leading to calls for mass changes — has shone the spotlight on their heavy workloads in Super Rugby.

Gibson agrees he needs to give his stars more time off next season to keep them fresh for the World Cup after they showed signs of fatigue during the international campaign.

“One of the review findings out of our own season back in August was we played our best players too much,” he said.

“So that shows us straight away that, as a strategy, we need to improve the depth of our squad and trust our players can do a job.”

Kurtley Beale could be rested during the Super Rugby season to ease his workload before the World Cup. Picture: AAP

During the season, Gibson used just 34 players, the least number of any Super Rugby franchise.

By comparison, the Crusaders, who won the championship and are laden with All Blacks, used 44 players.

While the Waratahs won the Australian conference and reached the semi-finals, the extra workload on the players inevitably took its toll by the time Test season rolled around, with Bernard Foley and Kurtley Beale, in particular, struggling to maintain peak form.

“There are a number of reasons, particularly those high-minutes workloads — that was definitely one of them,” Gibson said.

“KB was upwards of 30 games. You can’t expect a player to be at his absolute best in each of those games.”

Gibson and the other Australian Super Rugby coaches met with Wallabies coach Michael Cheika in August to nut out how to better manage their stars in the World Cup year.

While they didn’t make any rigid agreements, Gibson said they would keep the lines of communication open and work it out as the season progresses.