Rugby World Cup 2019 | Wallabies face major selection headache in opening games in Japan

The World Cup is less than a week away and the Wallabies are definitely contenders. But a massive call could make the difference from day one.

The Wallabies head into next week’s World Cup full of confidence but there are still plenty of questions around the make up of Australia’s best team.

The Wallabies kick off their World Cup campaign with an important match against Fiji, a match they’re expected to win but one that has pundits fearing the match up.

But with the 31-man squad selected for the World Cup featuring players who have been chopped and changed throughout the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup in the lead up, Australia’s best team has yet to become apparent.

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The Wallabies aren’t able to ease into the tournament either with the Fijian match up followed by the all-important match against Wales.
Wales have had a huge lead up to the tournament, briefly snatching the World No. 1 spot from New Zealand after claiming the Six Nations Grand Slam.

Australia then finish the group stages with matches against Uruguay and Georgia, needing to finish in the top two of the five team pool to progress to the quarterfinals.

It leaves a massive question for the Wallabies, with the squad selecting three flyhalves in Bernard Foley, Christian Lealiifano and Matt To’omua, although the latter can also play inside centre.

Christian Lealiifano has had a stunning return to international rugby after a battle with leukaemia.

Speaking at the launch of Kayo Sports’ Rugby World Cup coverage late last week, four former Wallabies — Australia’s most prolific World Cup try scorer Drew Mitchell, 111-Test great George Smith, 1999 World Cup winning forward Owen Finegan, and fullback turned broadcaster Greg Martin — gave their opinions about one of Wallabies’ biggest selection headaches.

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Mitchell, Finegan, Smith and Martin all agree the Wallabies are definitely contenders in 2019, which arguably makes the decision between the star even more important for Australia’s hopes.

While To’omua has been playing a relief role, it appears as though Lealiifano and Foley are locked in the battle for the role.

Smith admitted Lealiifano’s performances had boosted his chances of being Australia’s main playmaker, having orchestrated the Wallabies’ record win over the All Blacks in Perth.

“Christian’s form leading into the World Cup was pretty hard to ignore, the way he steered that Brumbies team and also in the lead up games to tournament selection,” Smith said. “But Foley’s such a cool character in terms of what he does out there on the field and his ability to slot goals, so they both have attributes which are encouraging to see and hopefully they continue to push each other in training so we have the best number 10 available.”

Bernard Foley and Christian Lealiifano are so close they even bathe together — apparently.

Foley was the main playmaker at the last World Cup, when the Wallabies shocked pundits by making it all the way to the final, where they lost to the All Blacks.

He has also been a favourite of coach Michael Cheika, having held his nerve in 2014 to deliver the NSW Waratahs the Super Rugby title.

Martin said it appears Chieka has a “slight bias” when it comes to the NSW star.

“A coach always remembers back to when the moments were tough ‘this bloke got me there’ but the reality is, Bernard Foley hasn’t been at his best this year,” Martin said. “Christian Leiliafano has edged ahead of him and his combination with Nic White is pretty good, they played together at the Brumbies and that’s got to count for something. When we put Kerevi outside that, we still don’t know how good that could be, we could be onto something special because Christian Leiliafano hadn’t played a Test for years so he was just finding his feet. I think there’s more upside with Leiliafano that anyone else at 10.”

Finegan agreed White and Leiliafano could make a claim for the established halves combination.

But the 1999 World Cup champion also mentioned the most important part of winning a World Cup — luck.

“We won in 1999 because we got a bit of luck when Stephen Larkham kicked his first field goal,” Finegan said. “England won a World Cup in 2003 against the Wallabies, not because it was lucky but they got a field goal that broke the deadlock so there’s always something special like that. New Zealand in 1995 with Jonah Lomu rampaging but when they got to the final against South Africa, they got a couple of pieces of luck. You’ve just got to be in the game, there in the finals and you’ve got a chance of winning it.”

Owen Finegan, George Smith, Greg Martin and Drew Mitchell had their say on the World Cup.

As for Mitchell, he said the Wallabies just need to start strong and confident.

He said the team can take some positives from the Rugby Championship, despite the “mixed results”, with the performance against the All Blacks in Perth proving Australia can catch it with the best in the world.

With 12 of the 31 Wallabies selected for the 2019 squad returning from the 2015 edition, Mitchell said Australia has a wonderful history at the tournament to draw on.

“Rather than just drawing on the 2015 result, I think we can draw on Australia’s record at World Cups — we always seem to play our best footy at World Cups which is always encouraging,” Mitchell said. “I’ve also got a tremendous amount of belief in not only the players but Michael Cheika and his staff to get these players together and genuinely believing in themselves.”