Sunday News

Is it time for Wallabies to blood new boys?

- MATTHEW BURKE

OPINION: I saw through the week Will Genia bristling after being asked about the worth of the older crew coming back from Europe to play in this year’s Rugby Championsh­ip.

The word rebuilding has been bandied about a lot in recent times, but as we have heard from coach Michael Cheika previously, this team’s long-term goal is rebuilding the Wallabies as an attacking force.

Does rebuilding require new blood, discarding those that are deemed superfluou­s? Having been one of those older players playing overseas, you still think you can contribute, make a difference, and they have that opportunit­y now with the relaxing of the rules, allowing players with 60 test caps or more to return and play for the Wallabies.

Spiro Zavos wrote a few weeks back about Cheika taking a massive gamble with his back-to-thefuture plan to revive the Wallabies.

Zavos thought the gamble would probably end in tears. Perhaps that prediction was right as the Wallabies lost both tests against the All Blacks with the overseas players in the team.

So did recalling Australia’s French connection for the Rugby Championsh­ips show limited foresight? My answer to that is no. Especially having lost 3-0 to England. If they’re the best players to represent the Wallabies, surely they should be picked. That has always been my argument: you pick the best players available.

Having said that, I totally understand that we have to grow the game in our backyard.

We have to somehow unearth the next Tim Horan or Jason Little, players who dominated at such a young age for a generation. The reality is, however, that there are no players coming through of that ilk, and that’s why the coach has relied on his ‘‘French Australian­s’’ to add experience to the team.

Would the French connection have changed the outcome of the England series in June? Who knows?

The real question is, should we take the hit, give younger players their chance and wear the pain of losing – which could be for an extended period – in order to grow, or do we keep going back to our overseas exports?

Having the overseas players available at the Rugby World Cup last year was a masterstro­ke.

It so nearly provided a third World Cup win but, realistica­lly, and having played in that European system, the clubs own you, and without them saying to you directly, they want your allegiance to be to the club. The World Cup is an exception, but with the Test window we are in now, not so much.

The European clubs will argue players signed to play for them, having handed in their national jumper. Only now the rules have changed from the other end, meaning players now want to have their cake and eat it, too.

The result, inevitably, will be there will be fewer and fewer players returning to Australia with the blessing of their club, especially when they would have seen what happened to Matt Giteau against the All Blacks. Toulon would have been livid at the decision to let him go.

So who’s in the mix to take over from the overseas players? Dane Haylett-Petty is new to the team, as is Reece Hodge. Adam Coleman is trying to find his feet at internatio­nal level, as is Rory Arnold. Or does an Andrew Kellaway, an Andrew Ready or a Jed Holloway get a start?

At some stage these players will have to get a run.

 ??  ?? Halfback Will Genia.
Halfback Will Genia.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from New Zealand