Wallabies coach Robbie Deans on target for 2011 World Cup
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans on target for 2011 World Cup
By Bret Harris
September 19, 2009
If Australia lose to the New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday night, they will finish last in the Tri-Nations, but they will arguably still be the best-placed team in the southern hemisphere in the current World Cup cycle.
There are five players - James O'Connor, Lachie Turner, Will Genia, David Pocock and Ben Alexander - in the Wallabies' starting line-up that Deans has introduced to Test rugby over the past 15 months and another five - Pek Cowan, Dean Mumm, Luke Burgess, Quade Cooper and Peter Hynes - on the bench.
And players such as James Horwill, Benn Robinson, Tatafu Polota-Nau and the injured Digby Ioane had not clocked up much game time until Deans arrived.
Two years out from the World Cup, Deans will have just enough time to develop his team of tyros into a winning Wallabies outfit for 2011. Australia's World Cup winning coaches Bob Dwyer (1991) and Rod Macqueen (1999) did much the same thing.
Dwyer rejuvenated the Wallabies with the blooding of Tony Daly, Phil Kearns, Rod McCall, Tim Horan and Jason Little in 1989 and continued the process the following year with the addition of Ewen McKenzie and Willie Ofahengaue.
To be fair, Macqueen inherited a large player pool which had been exposed to Test rugby by his predecessor Greg Smith, who brought in Andrew Blades, Richard Harry, David Giffin, Stephen Larkham, Ben Tune and Owen Finegan in 1996.
Macqueen added Matt Cockbain, Toutai Kefu, Mark Connors, Nathan Grey, Jeremy Paul and Chris Whitaker to the mix between 1997 and 1999.
The point is, the majority of those World Cup-winning Wallabies were in the team two years before the tournament, allowing time for the new talent to blend with the more experienced campaigners. Deans is now developing a similar sort of squad to those of Dwyer and Macqueen.
In 15 months at the helm, Deans has culled veterans such as Al Baxter, Matt Dunning, Nathan Sharpe, Lote Tuqiri and Phil Waugh from the 22-man squad as he has sought to build a hungrier team. There is still a reasonable amount of experience with George Smith, Matt Giteau, Berrick Barnes, Mark Chisholm, Rocky Elsom and Stephen Moore all seasoned Test players. And Stirling Mortlock and Dan Vickerman could be back too.
By the time of the World Cup most of the Wallabies will be either at their peak or approaching their peak. This will not necessarily be the case with the All Blacks and the Springboks.
South Africa are the best team in the world, but they are an ageing team. No country has yet won back-to-back World Cups.
By 2011 four of the Springboks' starting forwards - Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Juan Smith and John Smit - will be on the other side of 30.
It will be a great challenge for South Africa coach Pierre de Villiers to find replacements, particularly for Matfield and Smit, who provide unique lineout and leadership skills.
The Springbok backs will be in their prime, but some like Jean de Villiers, Francois Steyn and Bryan Habana will be playing in Europe, which could be disruptive.
Who knows what the All Blacks will be like. They are usually the best team in the world in between World Cups, but they are in a state of flux.
Richie McCaw and Dan Carter will still be hugely influential, but possibly just slightly past their best, although that might be wishful thinking.
The current All Blacks have been described as the worst of the professional era, which is a little bit harsh, but it underlines the size of the task ahead for coach Graham Henry, who has been in charge of the team for six years and may have to re-invent it.
As the Springboks plateau, or maybe decline, and the All Blacks possibly misstep, the young and ambitious Wallabies will keep on coming.
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