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(We need more emoticons Coach to express my feelings on the matter...
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Vice-captain Lote a mixed message
By Wayne Smith
September 27, 2007
LOTE Tuqiri, a player seemingly so irresponsible (you're not wrong there) he is officially on his last chance, was last night named as vice-captain of the side to play Canada in Bordeaux on Saturday.
And less than a year after he tearfully declared he never wanted to captain another side after leading Australia A to a demoralising defeat to the Ospreys in the opening match of the 2006 spring tour, flanker George Smith is wearing the armband again, the 75th player to captain Australia in the history of Test rugby.
In coach John Connolly's original plans, this was to have been the match in which Steve Larkham finally achieved the one distinction to sidestep him in his illustrious career, captaining his country.
But with that no longer an option, Smith is a deserving recipient of the honour and while chances are it's a one-off - as it was for Rod McCall and Jason Little when they each captained a World Cup pool match in 1995 and 1999 - who's to say this is not a foretaste of things to come.
Smith is only 27 yet already has 81 caps to his name and could easily eclipse former French skipper Fabien Pelous as the fastest and youngest player to reach a rugby Test century. Indeed, George Gregan sees him as the one player who might threaten his world record for most Tests, currently at 136 and rising.
But while there may well be portents in Smith's selection as captain, it is difficult to know what to make of the choice of Tuqiri as his deputy. The in-form but out-of-luck wing (*cough*), still seeking his first try of the World Cup, remains under the midnight curfew imposed on him and Matt Dunning by ARU boss John O'Neill after they went on a drinking binge in Brisbane following the Wallabies' pre-Cup bonding camp. Someone who partied with them allegedly went on to bash a taxi driver.
Tuqiri subsequently was served with a letter from O'Neill warning him that if there was one more incident, his contract, which reputedly makes him the highest-paid rugby player in the country, would be torn up.
While officialdom appears to have a problem with Tuqiri, Connolly clearly doesn't and the Wallabies coach yesterday saw nothing out-of-the-ordinary in the elevation of the Waratahs wing to a share of the vice-captaincy along with former Test skipper Nathan Sharpe.
"Lote deserves it," said Connolly. "He is training very well, leading from the front and he has been a good influence on the team." (Yep come on boys...i'll show you how to drink, turn up to training drunk..oh no wait...i didn't turn up, AND not score tries...)
The Canada match will see the first appearance of David Lyons in a Wallabies starting side since the Fiji Test in Perth. Otherwise, he has had only one other Test start since 2005, against Scotland at Murrayfield last year, with Wycliff Palu repeatedly being preferred to him at No.8.
Just when it looked like the 2003 World Cup final veteran was about to get his chance to cement a permanent place in the Test pack, he was ruled out of the Bledisloe Cup Test against New Zealand in Auckland in July when he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis on match eve.
He has been on blood-thinning medication throughout this tournament but will go off it before this match as a safeguard in case he is cut.
Also making a long-awaited return is 2006 rookie of the year Greg Holmes, who had established himself as Australia's first-choice loose head last season before a neck injury ruled him out of the spring tour, opening the door for Matt Dunning to reclaim the position.
Barely had he recovered from that setback than Holmes encountered another, missing the entire domestic Super 14 and international season when he was forced to undergo a shoulder reconstruction, and this clash with the Maple Leafs will be his first Test start of the year.
On the other side of the scrum, tighthead Al Baxter becomes only the second Australian prop - after his Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie - to register 50 Test caps, no mean achievement for a player whose selection has been under fairly constant fire since he first came into the Wallabies in 2003.
"I feel honoured and privileged to be in a position to achieve 50 caps," said Baxter, who understandably is edgy about soon overtaking 51-Test campaigner McKenzie as Australia's most capped prop.
"It's different eras and should be seen in a different context," said Baxter. "We play a lot more Tests than those guys did back then."
Canada, meanwhile, will go into Sunday's match on something of a low after having had its first win of the World Cup tournament snatched away when an injury-time try allowed Japan to secure a 12-all draw overnight.
The Australian
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau." 
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Originally Posted by travelling_gerry
