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Deans puts Wallabies on notice
Wayne Smith | April 24, 2008
UNCAPPED players could make up a third of the 30-man squad likely to be pencilled in at the first meeting of the new Wallabies selection panel shortly before Robbie Deans' Crusaders play the Reds in Brisbane on May 10.
In recent years Test selectors have discussed the likely composition of the Wallabies, either in person or by telephone hook-up, after every round of the Super 14.
But with the ARU abiding by the NZRU's request that contact with Deans, the incoming Wallabies coach, be kept to a minimum to allow him to concentrate on the Super 14, and assistant coach Jim Williams still working with a Munster side that has reached the Heineken Cup semi-finals, the selectors - Deans, Williams and Michael Foley and adviser Pat Howard - have not yet had so much as a conference call.
Although the first Wallabies squad of the Deans era will not be announced until the day he starts work with the ARU, June 2, the face-to-face selectors' meeting in Brisbane will come close to finalising the 30 players to go into camp for the season's opening Test, against Ireland in Melbourne on June 14.
Indications are that Toulon-based George Gregan, Japan-bound Stephen Larkham and Brumbies team-mate Julian Huxley, who is still recuperating from surgery to remove a brain tumour, won't be the only World Cup squad members missing.
Unless there is a dramatic improvement in their form, two members of the front-row traumatised by England in the World Cup quarter-final in Marseille last October, Brumbies tighthead Guy Shepherdson and Queenslander Stephen Moore, will be passed over. Three other Reds, back-up hooker Sean Hardman, utility forward Hugh McMeniman and loosehead Greg Holmes also could be pushed aside.
Hardman has done little wrong but such is the form of NSW hookers Tatafu Polota-Nau and Adam Freier that no room is likely to be found for him. But while McMeniman and Holmes have been injured this season, it did not go unnoticed that both took maximum leave after the World Cup, even though they had played little rugby in 2007 because of injuries.
Such is the wealth of backrow talent that Waratahs veteran David Lyons, whose World Cup campaign ended miserably when he broke a leg against Canada in Bordeaux, will not make the squad.
There could yet be further casualties from the cup squad unless late starter Adam Ashley-Cooper continues to play catch-up, while Australia's most capped prop Al Baxter could be squeezed out because of NSW team-mate Matt Dunning's successful switch to tighthead.
And not just Dunning. Dayna Edwards' emergence as the pillar of the Reds scrum is sure to have been noted.
The changing of the guard after the thrashing at Stade Velodrome also could see Brumbies strongman Salese Ma'afu and resurgent Waratahs prop Benn Robinson in the reckoning, while 118kg backrower turned loosehead Sekope Kepu has been attracting attention for reasons other than his three-try effort for Randwick against Penrith last weekend.
The selectors are unlikely to venture beyond the four Test-proven second-rowers, Dan Vickerman, Nathan Sharpe, Mark Chisholm and James Horwill, although Dean Mumm's stunning form at lock and blindside flanker for the Tahs puts him on target to follow his grandfather Bill into Test football, although as a Wallaby not an All Black.
Force number eight Tamati Horua's suspected high grade knee ligament tear has robbed the selectors of a "person of interest" but that barely thins out the crowd, with Perth pair David Pocock and Richard Brown jostling with all the usual suspects.
Sam Cordingley still heads the halfback contenders but he cannot afford any more time on the injured list, not with Luke Burgess and Ben Lucas strongly pushing their claims.
Force centre Ryan Cross looks certain to be called into the squad, along with fellow league convert Timana Tahu - who is being considered for every position from inside centre to wing - while NSW team-mate Lachlan Turner is likely to be the only other new face in the backs.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...012430,00.html