Wallabies on a war footing as Dave Rennie selects his first players

Dave Rennie on Sunday will announce his first Australian players from the two clubs not contesting the Super Rugby AU play-offs.

Halfback Ian Prior could be among the Force players named in the Wallabies.

Dave Rennie on Sunday will announce his first Australian players from the two clubs not contesting the Super Rugby AU play-offs – the Western Force and either the NSW Waratahs or the Melbourne Rebels – as the Wallabies finally begin moving onto a war footing.

It still has not been definitively confirmed that Test rugby will be taking place in Australia next month – that decision, too, is expected later this week – but with the Force set to return to Perth on Monday night after contesting the domestic Super Rugby competition this season, the selectors’ hand has been forced.

If players required for the Wallabies squad went back to Western Australia, they would then be forced to go into quarantine for a fortnight on their return to the east coast to join the national squad. That option is regarded as unworkable, so any Force players required by Rennie will remain in NSW.

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“They’ll continue to live in the bubble,” said Force coach Tim Sampson. “They might even bunker down with the Rebels guys if they make the qualifying final (against the Queensland Reds on September 12).”

If the Force win, the Rebels will miss out on the final. If they lose by four points or more, the Waratahs will be eliminated. It is an unforgiving scenario.

It is unclear how many Force players will be chosen but given that Rennie will be forced to select an overall squad of 46 players for biosecurity reasons, it may be that every Force player in contention – such players as Byron Ralston, Ian Prior, Brynard Stander and Fergus Lee-Warner – will be asked to train on.

Similarly, the other Australian side that fails to reach the finals could find all of their Wallabies fringe players selected this week, only for any surplus players to be trimmed once Rennie has a full selection picture in front of him.

The initial intake of train-on players will be chosen by Rennie and Rugby Australia’s director of rugby Scott Johnson on Thursday, with a final confirmation to be made before the names are released on Sunday. Whether that remains the full extent of the selection panel going forward or whether an independent selector is brought in, similar to Michael O’Connor in Michael Cheika’s final year as coach, remains to be seen. “We’ll have a look at how we operate a little down the track,” said Johnson.

Meanwhile, the fate of The Rugby Championship is likely to be decided this week, or at least decided as much as a global pandemic will allow. Reports overnight on Sunday that South Africa was turning its back on TRC to contest the Eight Nations tournament in the northern hemisphere were dismissed by SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos in just two words: “No substance”.

So that only left the issues of where TRC would be played. The initial expectation was that it would be played in NZ in front of full stadiums, but how quickly events changed. Now, if NZ cannot stage it, the only plan is to bring it to Australia – not, as originally thought to WA because of the “hard” borders there, but now to NSW or Queensland. And if it was staged in Queensland, then perhaps one of the two Bledisloe Tests scheduled for Brisbane, on October 10 and 17, might be relocated to NSW.

“We are having weekly SANZAAR CEOs meetings and we have another one later this week where the TRC is number one on the agenda,” said Rugby Australia interim CEO Clarke. “Certainly we are running out of time there and we have to make a decision as to where it is to be ‘hubbed’ and try and lock that away. There are so many moving parts to this one. We need to make a call in the next seven days.”

Meanwhile, despite the fact that the “end of August” deadline has passed for expressions of interest in the “8-10 team” trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition planned by NZ Rugby, Australia has heard no word on whether the Kiwis are planning a joint competition next year or whether the two countries will go it alone. The fact that 35 players sustained major injuries across the five franchises during Super Rugby Aotearoa suggests the Kiwis might need the less intense matches Australia would provide.