Isi Naisarani and Connal McInerney added to Wallabies squad

Melbourne Rebels number eight Isi Naisarani and Brumbies hooker Connal McInerney have been brought into the Wallabies camp.

Isi Naisarani, in action against Wales at the World Cup, has been recalled

It is unclear whether it will have any ramifications for Bledisloe III against the All Blacks on Saturday in Sydney, but Melbourne Rebels number eight Isi Naisarani and Brumbies hooker Connal McInerney have been brought into the Wallabies camp.

Certainly it is unlikely McInerney, who takes the place of Waratahs number two Tom Horton, will come into the selection picture this week, given how much information a new hooker would need to take on in one week.

Besides, the Wallabies were well-served in the set pieces by Queensland’s Brandon Paenga-Amosa, who backed up his work there with a busy and effective general game. Off the bench, the Rebels’ Jordan Uelese continued to bring himself back up to Test speed.

Naisarani is a more interesting case study, however. He was used by Michael Cheika as the starting number eight in the four major World Cup Tests against Fiji, Wales, Georgia and England last year and while new coach Dave Rennie held him out of his original squad to work on elements of his training, he would be well aware he is one of the Wallabies’ most aggressive ball-carrying threats.

It is unlikely Naisarani will force his way into the starting side, not with Harry Wilson, Michael Hooper and Ned Hanigan all performing reasonably in Auckland, but it would not surprise if he comes into consideration for the bench as a backrow option.

While two forwards were brought into the squad, there was no movement to call for a replacement for inside centre Matt Toomua, even though scans have all but ruled him out of the entire Tri-Nations campaign. Seemingly Rennie is happy with the in-house options he already has – either to use the Brumbies’ midfielder Irae Simone as a direct replacement or to move James O’Connor to 12 and give a Test debut instead to Brumbies’ playmaker Noah Lolesio at 10.

“Our philosophy around earning the right to play hasn’t changed,” said Rennie on Friday. “Whatever changes we make will be based on the fact that we think certain individuals are ready to go and deserve an opportunity or maybe the guys who wore the jersey previously haven’t nailed it.

“There’s certainly a lot of competition for places. We’re not scared to make changes.”

That might well apply to the fullback position where Tom Banks has not quite “nailed” the 15 jersey despite putting in two solid Tests at Sky Stadium and Eden Park. He was virtually faultless under the high ball but he has made little progress through the All Blacks’ kick-chase defence.

Still, he should not be judged on the fact that New Zealand’s two main ball-returners, Beauden Barrett and Caleb Clarke, both carved up the Australians from the All Blacks’ backfield. Certainly the New Zealanders built a far more formidable wall to defend their kicks than did the Wallabies, though hopefully if the Australian halves do kick this week, they will do so on their own terms.

Presumably that will give them the chance to get players forward to dispute the contestable kicks and, when they kick for territory, to form a solid line of defence to handle Clarke’s beast-like charges. Lining up to tackle the All Blacks’ left winger one-on-one, as the Wallabies repeatedly did in Auckland, is simply a recipe for disaster. Rennie warned his players of the danger Clarke presented. Now they have seen it for themselves.

The Wallabies scrum coach Petrus du Plessis is still in quarantine but is keeping his pack updated with daily Zoom briefings, according to loosehead prop Scott Sio.

At the moment, the only thing consistent about the scrum battle is the inconsistency. Australia won the first scrum penalty at Eden Park, thanks mainly to James Slipper, but ironically conceded one just before halftime when Taniela Tupou unaccountably was caught high by Joe Moody’s replacement, Alex Hodgman on debut.

“It’s a lot of back and forth and we can never look too far past the next scrum,” Sio said. “It is more about staying in the moment there and making sure that we are all engaged and ready to go each scrum, whether that’s our connection as a group pre-scrum or getting our head around that and being in the moment there. We want to get a lot more consistency around our set piece if we want to keep improving as a team.”

That inconsistency, that inaccuracy worked its way across the entire team and cost Australia dearly, said Rennie.

“What we know is there is an expectation that we need to win now. Ultimately, you earn respect with how you perform and I think we earned a lot of respect in game one and we took a step backwards last week. Not through attitude or effort, but through accuracy so we need to be better.”