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Deans impressed by young guns
December 04, 2008 - 3:11pm
Story by: AAP
Coach Robbie Deans believes the Wallabies victory at Wembley early Thursday morning (AEDT) over the Barbarians was a priceless learning experience for his depleted Wallabies - led by youngsters James O'Connor, Quade Cooper and Tatafu Polota-Nau.
The Young Guns upstaged a World XV-strength Barbarians outfit full of All Blacks and Springboks stars.
"It bodes well for the future," Deans said.
"These experiences are good for us. We're obviously losing a couple of players and you can't get away from that, but you can't get that growth without getting some pain along the way either."
In the absence of Test regulars Stirling Mortlock, Matt Giteau, Nathan Sharpe and Stephen Moore, Deans' emerging stars - and as ever captain George Smith - were awesome, denying the likes of Richie McCaw, Jerry Collins, John Smit and Schalk Burger victory in a bruising and, at times, spiteful encounter.
Deans reserved special praise for O'Connor, who, in his first start for the Wallabies, coped brilliantly with Bryan Habana, Joe Rokocoko and Shane Williams, as well as nailing three goals from as many attempts.
"He was fantastic," Deans said.
"When you look at some of the players that he was up against and you consider he's 18 years old and he's playing against three of the best wingers in the world - and three of the best wingers in the world that we've seen for a decade - that's pretty intimidating stuff.
"But you got an insight into some of his gifts, his footwork, and the ability to step up and kick three goals was great."
Before the match, which marked 100 years since Australia won the rugby gold medal at the 1908 London Olympics, Smith had the honour of introducing Princess Anne to his Wallabies teammates.
http://rugby.com.au/news/wallabies_2.../section/21893
Robyn: check out the picture on the website.