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Gomarsall anoints Giteau No.9
By Bret Harris
October 30, 2007
ENGLAND's Rugby World Cup halfback Andy Gomarsall has nominated brilliant inside back Matt Giteau as George Gregan's replacement in Australia's No.9 jumper.
Gomarsall, in Sydney on a promotional visit for his English club Harlequins, said that Giteau would be an "awesome" choice at the Wallabies' scrumbase.
Departed Wallabies coach John Connolly experimented with Giteau at halfback in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup in France, but went back to veteran Gregan.
One of the biggest questions facing the new Wallabies coach will be who to play at halfback following Gregan's retirement from international rugby.
Giteau was a halfback until he reached the Australian under-21 level, and he has since established himself as an inside centre and occasional five-eighth. The list of potential Wallabies halfback contenders includes Sam Cordingley, Josh Holmes, Brett Sheehan, Josh Valentine, Luke Burgess and Matt Henjak.
"On my flight over here, in Abu Dhabi, I bumped into an old friend and an ex-colleague of mine, (former Wallabies coach) Bob Dwyer, and we had a chat about that," Gomarsall said.
"His thoughts were to go with Matt Giteau and I pretty much concur with that. He is a fantastic talent.
"It's just the fact that he is so good at inside centre and flyhalf (five-eighth) as well. The problem is, who do you put in that position that can have such an effect that he does there?
'Almost scrum half (halfback) might be a wasted opportunity for him. Time will tell on that.
"I know I wish I was as bloody talented as him that I could play as an inside centre, 10 and number nine.
"Whether he will be as effective as a nine as he is as a 10 or a 12, time will tell.
"I just know he is a massive threat in that area.
"Bob pointed out to me that when (the Wallabies) substituted Gregan in a Tri-Nations game, possibly against the All Blacks, Australia started to play some awesome rugby and they actually won the game when he came on. If that 40 minutes means he is the future, then so be it.
"I don't know if there is any young talent coming through. George has dominated that position for so long and rightly so, an awesome competitor and an awesome scrum half. It's up for grabs now, isn't it?
"It's up to some of the young guys to come through now. I believe there's a couple out there. It's going to be very tough boots to fill. I wouldn't like to be that person. Good luck to whoever it is, but I think Matt Giteau would be an awesome choice."
Gomarsall revealed that England had targeted Gregan, whom he rated as the greatest halfback in world rugby, in their upset 12-10 win over the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Marseille.
"It was all down to the breakdown, really," he said.
"When you've got such a class team as Australia, and great players within it, for us getting to George Gregan was the main thing about stopping Australia playing.
"His record speaks for itself. To get to him kind of stops Australia and that meant the breakdown had to become a contest. We watched a lot of pool games Australia had played in and the opposing team did not attack the breakdown and when they did they were successful.
"So attacking that breakdown and making it a massive contest enabled us to get to the important people in their team."
Gomarsall said England could not allow the Wallabies to get into an attacking rhythm by playing their multi-phase game.
"The fear of playing Australia was that they would get phases together and build momentum against you," he said.
"They proved that in our game. When they had the phases they played from whatever source, whether it was off a kick or off a lineout, when they got that momentum and the phases together they scored.
"Lote Tuqiri scored.
"So it was important we stopped them at source. The forwards really took massive credit for that.
"We eradicated their scrum and the lineout, Australia won a fair amount of ball, but we had done our homework on what they were looking to achieve.
"We stopped that at the source and then countered with our attack from that. It was a massive defensive effort, really. In the last minute it could have gone either way with the mistral (wind) helping us, putting Stirling Mortlock's kick to the left of the posts.
"It was a massive test for us and, thankfully, it was meant to be."
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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