Wallabies take on All Blacks with newlook halves

Nic White and Christian Lealiifano will start together for the first time in a Test on Saturday against the All Blacks.

Wallabies halfback Nic White, left, at the WACA in Perth

Halves Nic White and Christian Lealiifano will start together for the first time in a Test and James O’Connor will play outside centre at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Saturday as the Wallabies attempt to overcome the massive jinx of former captain Phil Waugh declaring the All Blacks “vulnerable”.

Whether New Zealand are vulnerable or not — and they have been less than at their best in two Rugby Championship Tests against Argentina and South Africa — the standard operating procedure is to rave about how invincible they are. It hasn’t made any difference either way in the 17 years that New Zealand have held the Bledisloe Cup but at least that gives the All Blacks coach new motivational material to use and Waugh, who played them 17 times for just six wins in a fabled Wallabies career spanning 10 seasons and 79 Tests, should certainly know that.

Just when Steve Hansen was wondering how he could generate some “edge” in his side after only passable performances in Buenos Aires and Wellington, along came Waugh to suggest on Fox Sports that they may no longer be the most dominant team in the world. One could almost hear the groans emanating from the Wallabies camp.

All indications are that former Brumbies halves White and Lealiifano will make for a different halves partnership tomorrow and, in the words of Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day, “anything different is good” when it comes to Bledisloe clashes.

To have started the time-honoured combination of Will Genia and Bernard Foley, who respectively have won three out of 25 Tests and two out of 15 against the All Blacks, would have dramatically eased the homework load for the New Zealand players.

They will be more familiar with White than Lealiifano, who played the last of his three Tests against them in 2014 — all of them at inside centre. On that occasion, Nick Phipps and Foley formed the halves while in the two previous Bledisloe Tests in which the Brumbies captain figured, in Sydney and Wellington in 2013, Genia and Matt Toomua were the playmakers. Australia lost the lot.

White, however, has a win and a draw against them in his seven outings — only three as a starter — and he mixes his play up enough to keep them guessing. He could do himself and the Wallabies a massive favour by running more from the ruck base but there is no doubting that he was one of the Wallabies’ form players against the Boks in Johannesburg.

Genia answered him in kind with a commanding display against the Pumas and it certainly does the Wallabies no harm in the lead-up to the World Cup to be able to mix-and-match their play around their number nines.

White and Lealiifano have played together before for the Wallabies but off the bench on the 2013 tour under Ewen McKenzie.

O’Connor is set to wear the No 13 jersey for the first time in his international career, partnering Samu Kerevi in a midfield pairing expected to switch roles during the game. O’Connor will replace Tevita Kuridrani, who will be dropped from the squad altogether.

O’Connor, who came off the bench a fortnight ago against Argentina for his first Test in six years, has played a number of backline roles for Australia and at club level, but the difficult defensive role at outside centre is relatively unfamiliar to him.

The 29-year-old did start there for English club Sale at times last season, but is more comfortable in the playmaking positions of five-eighth and inside centre, or fullback and wing.

There was some conversation, seemingly now discounted, that Wallabies lock Izack Rodda was in danger of surrendering his starting spot to Adam Coleman this Saturday. If the rumours were true, it’s a sure sign that the Wallabies, like employers everywhere, are demanding more and more from their hardest-serving warriors.

Rodda doesn’t do giraffe-like runs in the open — although he did escape and took a lot of corralling against the Pumas in Brisbane — and his work around the breakdown might have become just a little ragged of late, but there surely is not a player in the Wallabies who can match his general workrate.

Seemingly, then, his combination with Rory Arnold will get the chance to blossom further, although Coleman is likely to come onto the bench and will have him looking over his shoulder.

The All Blacks seemingly refuse to believe that superstar flanker David Pocock will not be in the starting side on Saturday, which presumably means that even the New Zealanders prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

There is no doubting that his return is close but unless the Wallabies are planning a monumental “sting”, he won’t be adding Optus Stadium to his list of personal Test venues any time soon — if at all.

Just how heavily the All Blacks and rugby infiltrate New Zealand life is borne out by the fact that Sir Brian Lochore was even apologetic that his death might disrupt the team from its Test preparation.

The funeral of the former All Black captain, World Cup-winning coach and national selector will be held in Masterton today but before his death insisted that his funeral not interfere with the team’s build-up to the Perth Test. Accordingly, the team’s mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka will make the trip home to represent the entire All Blacks side.

There will be a moment’s silence for Lochore at the ground before kickoff on Saturday.