Rod Macqueen says Wallabies will gauge Cup chances against All Blacks

By Wayne Smith
 July 29, 2010 Rod Macqueen, the most recent Wallabies coach to win a World Cup, believes his successor Robbie Deans is just one match away from discovering what sort of chance he realistically has of taking Australia to a world title.
Macqueen, coach of Super 15 franchise Melbourne Rebels, stopped just short of describing the All Blacks side to play Australia at Etihad Stadium as the best New Zealand team of the past decade.

"I suspect it's a side that is on the verge of greatness," said Macqueen, who likened Richie McCaw's All Blacks to the famous side captained by Sean Fitzpatrick from 1992 to 1997.

"I think they're obviously the best team in the world at the moment and that's going to be a good opportunity for Australia to give themselves a real measure of where they are.

Greg Clark previews Saturday's Bledisloe Cup opener.

"Coming into the World Cup this is going to be a bit of a litmus test for them."

For those who seek out omens, it seems propitious this match will be played in Melbourne.

The last time the Wallabies lost seven Tests in succession to the All Blacks, their current dire predicament, they broke their losing sequence in the Victorian capital in 1998 - in Macqueen's first Bledisloe Cup game as coach.

One year later, of course, the Wallabies were on top of the world.

Whether Rocky Elsom's team can make that same leap will become a lot clearer this weekend.

"They'll know a lot better after this match," Macqueen said.

"This match is going to answer a lot of questions. I suspect as far as personnel is concerned, they're going reasonably well.

"They've got a younger side so they're not going to be worried if they have a couple of people getting too close to the edge. Those issues aren't there for Robbie."

As he looked towards the World Cup, two Wallabies in particular loomed large in Macqueen's thinking: halfback Will Genia and five-eighth/inside centre Matt Giteau.

"Genia is a great acquisition for Australian rugby and he's just getting better and better," Macqueen said.

"If he stays on his feet he adds so much more to the Australian side."

As for Giteau, Macqueen paid him the ultimate compliment of comparing him to one of the greats of the game, a two-time World Cup winner no less.

"In my opinion, I would say that Giteau looks more like Timmy Horan than any other inside centre we've had for quite a while," he said.

"So I would like to see Giteau get more time at inside centre."

Macqueen was loath to criticise the size of the current Wallabies back division.

"I think we ended up with those players because they're the sort of players Robbie wants there, I suspect," Macqueen said.

"There are bigger players around but it's probably a bit late to get some of them in. It's more to do with the style that we're wanting to play.

"We (Macqueen's 1998-2001 Wallabies) played a fairly direct sort of game and used the bigger backs that we had but that's not to say that that's the right way to go either.

"Some of the tries we've been able to score with some of the backs we've got right now have been pretty amazing."

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html