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IF you look closely at the 43-man Wallabies training squad announced on Monday, Kurtley Beale and Lachie Turner will trial at fullback at next week's camp in Sydney, while Dean Mumm, Richard Brown and Stephen Hoiles will run as blindside flankers.
When Wallabies coach Robbie Deans announced the Tri-Nations squad in July, the players were named in alphabetical order and their positions were denoted.
But in Monday's media release from the ARU the players were not named in alphabetical order nor were their positions indicated. Given the first player named was fullback James O'Connor and the last was hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, you have to try to work out the positions by demarcation.
The important thing to remember about this training squad is that the players will be put into a competitive environment to determine the 35 players who will make the tour to Japan and Britain next month.
Perhaps this explains why players have been (invisibly) bracketed in certain positions.
With five Tests and two midweek games on tour, Deans must select a squad that includes players who can win now and also be developed for later. Turner and Beale were listed as fullbacks as part of Deans's plan to develop depth at number 15.
With Drew Mitchell, Digby Ioane, Nick Cummins and Peter Hynes as the wingers, at least one of these outside backs will not tour. You would think it would be Cummins, but maybe he can put pressure on Mitchell or Hynes.
Ryan Cross, Stirling Mortlock, Rob Horne and Adam Ashley-Cooper were listed as the outside centres with Matt Giteau, Quade Cooper and Berrick Barnes the "five-eighths" as Deans would say in New Zealand-speak.
Giteau, Cooper and Barnes are all certain to tour, which means one of the outside centres will probably miss out.
Ashley-Cooper is established as a starter at either outside centre or fullback; Mortlock may or may not captain the Wallabies, but they will need his experience and physicality; Horne is a rising player who will be groomed for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand. This means Cross is the most vulnerable number 13.
There are four halfbacks in the squad: Josh Valentine, Will Genia, Luke Burgess and Richard Kingi. Deans will be keen to develop depth in the halfback position, which means he could take all four. Genia is a certainty and Kingi will most likely go as a development player, which means Burgess and Valentine may fight it out if only three tour.
Wycliff Palu and George Smith were the number eights with David Pocock and Phil Waugh covering openside flanker. They are all almost certain to tour, although Waugh is in doubt with a quadriceps injury.
Brown and Hoiles normally play number eight, while Mumm has been in the second row, but they were listed at number six with Matt Hodgson and Rocky Elsom. If Waugh is ruled out, Hodgson could cover openside flanker. Bolters Mitch Chapman and Ben McCalman float between blindside flanker and second row, but with Nathan Sharpe (shoulder) and James Horwill (foot) in doubt, they were named among the locks with Mark Chisholm and David Dennis.
The biggest representation of any position is prop if you do not differentiate between tighthead and loosehead with Al Baxter, Matt Dunning, Pek Cowan, Sekope Kepu, Salesi Ma'afu, Ben Alexander and Benn Robinson.
Alexander, Robinson and Cowan are likely to tour as they are current members of the 22-man match-day squad.
Does Deans then look to the past and resurrect Baxter and Dunning or gaze to the future and take Ma'afu and Kepu?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html