Nathan Sharpe on Super 15, 2011

NB: Questions posed to Sharpie have been paraphrased. Sorry it's taken a while to get up. I have been a bit busy.

Q: Sharpie is it good to be back?

Sharpie: Yeah, it’s great you know coming back and seeing the enthusiasm in the squad already in the first session. It’s always hard when you have a break and you know the team are back here busting a gut so it is good to get back into it.

Q: How is your body feeling?

Sharpie: Yeah really good actually. I had a really good physical break. I got away from it all. I think talking to the other Wallabies downstairs, for the first session at least, everyone is in a good frame of mind.

Q: Is there a new feel around the place?

Sharpie: Yeah definitely. Things have changed around a little bit with the carpark and all the rest of it so it all fits in well to the start of 2011 for us.

Q: Have you noticed any differences?

Sharpie: I think any time there is a change to the coaching structure and quite a few new players the team is going to find its own way. I couldn't put my finge on what the difference is at the moment- I've only been here for one morning- but certainly the guys have have come in have by all reports have accounted themselves well.

Q: What have you heard of pre-season so far?

Sharpie: It's been very tough but we're not kidding ourselves- every team has a tough pre-season. From this point onwards we've had few injuries touch wood but if we can maintain that through the season I know the hard work the guys have put in is really going to hold us in good stead going forward.

Q: With the Wallabies guys back do you try to raise it to another level?

Sharpie: Yeah well hopefully it's at the stage where we come in and we've got to raise our levels to what the other guys have been doing. I think the amount of physical conditioning they've been doing is tremendous just from what I've heard. Certainly the guys who looked like they had been carrying a bit too much last year have certainly stripped down a fair bit.

Q: A few of the guys have come back for pre-season a bit earlier. Why is that?

Sharpie: I think they're keen just to get back into it. When you're on holidays and you're training on your own it gets a bit lonely when you are used to training in a team environment. I know myself and Matty (Hodgson) and James (O'Connor) were keen to come in and have a run around with the other guys.

Q:With the new team will the competition be just as tough or a little bit diluted?

Sharpie: I think in terms of quality opposition a lot of young guys, particularly in Australian rugby, are coming through at the moment and they're getting better and their experience levels are coming up. Therefore you are going to have tough rugby. Also the competition is going to be a lot harder now as well. We have gone from the Super 14 to the Super 15 and it extends the competition by about 3 or 4 weeks. That's certainly going to take its toll on some players because for a number of years you just play those 13 games and then finals and it adds a bit onto the competition. I think player management and the rest of it is going to take a real significant influence going forward.

Q: Just looking at the squad, how far can you guys go?

Sharpie: Finals is our goal. That doesn't change for us. Again you never know how the year is going to unfold. You look at last year and how it turned out; we finished strongly and that augurs well for us. We need to start well this year and get ourselves in a position where we can really consolidate (a place in the finals).

Q: You had a lot of injuries last year. What did that mean for you?

Sharpie: I think if you look at the guys that came in and filled the breach, a guy like Ben McCalman hadn't played Super 14 rugby until last year. We lost a lot of our backrowers early on and he came in a played really well off the bench and then he got a starting go and then he ended up being the Number 8 for the Wallabies at the end of the year. That's a rapid transition that really helps our team. He's now come back in as a starting member of the Wallabies pack. That wasn't just an isolated case for us last year. Guys like Ben Whittaker, Nathan Charles, those sort of guys who came in and played a lot of Super 14 rugby last year. That experience is invaluable and they've only had a taste of it. A guy like Ben Whittaker is a guy you can see has had a taste of it and he's really trained the house down in the pre-season looking forward to hopefully getting another opportunity.

Q: Where are you guys placed in regard to the World Cup?

Sharpie: I think very well. Consistency is one of the things at the moment for the Wallabies to get on top of. You play a game like we did against France where everything comes together but then you have a game, you know to be fair to England they played really well in that game against us, but we let ourselves down in that department and that's the consistency I think. You know a youngish team needs to get on top of it. Certainly this year will be really helpful to gain that experience.

Q: How do you find the first few weeks of the competition- away in Brisbane and then a bye?

Sharpie: It's a bit strange with a bye in the second week into the competition but its probably not a bad thing for us. With the Wallabies coming back it gives those guys more of a chance to do more of pre-season together. We'll take that sort of angle towards it. That start is very important for us. We need to pick up that first game.