Will Beale make the plane to France?

Beale in World Cup plan

By David Beniuk, c/o Fox Sports
January 22, 2007

AUSTRALIAN rugby's hottest property, rookie five-eighth Kurtley Beale, has rocketed into Australia coach John Connolly's World Cup plans.

Connolly said today he's hoping the 18-year-old Waratahs prodigy will take the step up in the Super 14 competition this year and reach the top of the staircase by September.

Asked if Beale would come into calculations for the World Cup in France, Connolly said: "I hope so."

The coach compared Beale's rise from schoolboys ranks to that of Queenslander Elton Flatley, who he said took 18 months to jump from the schoolyard to Test rugby.

"Rugby's moved on since then, it's become a bit tougher in terms of the amateur/professional era but we're very hopeful Kurtley would be ready to step up," Connolly said.

He said the competition to be veteran playmaker Stephen Larkham's understudy was wide open.

"Will (Berrick) Barnes step up, what will Kurtley Beale do?" he said.

"That's a very grey area."

Connolly said the chance was still there for players outside the 47-man training squad which assembled earlier this month to press for a spot - including league converts Ryan Cross and Clinton Schifcofske.

"(Cross and Schifcofske) are very much up front. We didn't put them in the World Cup squad on purpose because we wanted them to earn it."

"I think those players will be very much at the forefront.

"Good performance in the Super 14 will be rewarded."

With the coach making it clear the halfback job will be a contest between skipper George Gregan, November tour stand-in Matt Giteau and Queensland's Sam Cordingley, Cordingley's right foot injury is again causing concern.

He had pins removed last week, will run this week and hopes to return to Super 14 action in round four.

But then he'll be gunning for Gregan's jersey.

"Trying to get the starting No.9 halfback would be a goal, I think anyone who plays at this level wants to be in the starting XV, I'm no different to that," Cordingley said.

Another half on the long-term injury list, Western Force five-eighth Lachlan MacKay, hopes to be back in round five after off-season groin operations followed a 2006 wiped out by a knee injury.

"Missing all of last year really put a dent in what I was hoping was going to be a big year heading towards 2007 with World Cup aspirations," MacKay said.

MacKay's aim is to get back onto the field to feed Force's star-studded backline of Giteau, Cross, Scott Staniforth, Drew Mitchell and Cameron Shepherd and, if that happens, he'll think about the next step.

"If things are going really well I reassess at the end of the Super 14," he said.

AAP