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AUSTRALIA'S Super Rugby coaches could refuse to express their opinions on Wallabies selections in future after the collated response to Robbie Deans request to nominate their side to play the British and Irish Lions was leaked to the media.
As he has done in recent years, Deans earlier this season asked the five Super Rugby coaches - Michael Cheika (Waratahs), Jake White (Brumbies), Ewen McKenzie (Reds), Michael Foley (Western Force) and Damien Hill (Rebels) - to select their Wallabies 23 and a back-up XV for the Lions series.
Cheika declined but the other four coaches supplied names as requested. Of those who responded, all but one spoke to The Australian yesterday to express their dismay that their collated results had been leaked to a Sydney newspaper yesterday.
"It makes you question whether you'll co-operate in future," one coach said. "We followed the process in good faith. Would you do it again? I'm not sure."
It's not just the fact that opinions they had expressed privately had been made public but that what appeared in the press, while accurate, did not represent their current thinking. The coaches responded to Deans a month ago, at which point, they said, both Quade Cooper and Israel Folau - two omissions from the leaked team - were playing well but not especially brilliantly. Since then, both have unleashed match-turning performances for the Reds and Waratahs respectively.
Moreover, the coaches were asked to give their thoughts on who should be in the Wallabies without being told by Deans what sort of game plan he intended to use against the Lions.
If, for example, Deans intends to play expansively to blitz a Lions side unaccustomed to the speed of the game on hard grounds, Cooper would be the ideal playmaker. But if he intends to continue with his pattern of recent seasons and use Pat McCabe at inside centre to run the crash ball then a five-eighth with a short-passing game prepared to take the ball to the line - like James O'Connor - would make more sense.
Deans emailed the five coaches on Tuesday to alert them the story was about to break but suspicion still is running high that the leak came from within the Australian Rugby Union.
The common belief was that the leak was intended to soften the blow if/when Cooper is omitted from the preliminary squad of 25 to be announced on Sunday.
The rationale was that the selectors could not be criticised for omitting him if the Super Rugby coaches also didn't believe he warranted inclusion. However, as one coach who admitted to not having Cooper in his team put it yesterday: "If I was picking my team now, I'd pick a different team."
Cooper is emerging as the favourite for the hotly-contested No 10 jersey, not just because of his game management but because he has the advantage of a long-established partnership with Will Genia.
Matthew Burke, Stirling Mortlock and George Gregan all have nominated them as Australia's halves for the first Test in Brisbane on June 22.
But Cooper also made a lot of enemies with his comments last year about the Wallabies' "toxic environment" and although he has been a model of discretion in recent times, while also working hard to prove his defence is up to Test standard, speculation continues his name will be missing on Sunday - ostensibly to give him the chance to prove himself in the Reds' match against the Lions on June 8.
If he performs well then he will be allocated one of the late additional six Wallabies squad berths to be announced on June 11.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1226643407289