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Could be time for Ioane to step up
By Wayne Smith
July 01, 2008 ALL the indicators point to injured pair Lote Tuqiri and Wycliff Palu being replaced in Australia's line-up for Saturday's second Test against France in Brisbane, but elsewhere in the Australian side the incumbents are digging in ferociously.
Tuqiri was a spectator at training on Monday at Ballymore as he nursed the "jammed knee" he sustained early in the Sydney Test last weekend and with Australia's opening Tri-Nations Test against the world champion Springboks set for July 19 in Perth, the temptation to give him a rest after an arduous Super 14 campaign will be hard to resist.
Perhaps significantly, Wallabies coach Robbie Deans, having earlier given half-back Luke Burgess some advice on his passing, spent the last portion of the hour-long training session supervising Reds winger Digby Ioane as he worked on the weakest part of his game, his kicking.
Whether that was a pointer to Tuesday's team selection is unclear but Deans made no attempt after the Australia A-Fiji match on Sunday to disguise how delighted he was with Ioane. As raw as Ioane is, he is a genuine strike weapon and the Wallabies' coach is clearly itching to let him loose.
Palu was nowhere to be seen, with team officials suggesting he was off receiving treatment for the shoulder injury that caused him to be replaced at half-time.
Should he be ruled out, Deans could find himself bowing to the seemingly inevitable - as Eddie Jones and John Connolly did before him - by using George Smith and Phil Waugh in unison in the backrow, Smith at eight, Waugh at seven.
It's hardly an elegant solution. It unbalances the backrow and leaves the Wallabies' pack short of a fourth lineout jumper. But Australia only boasts a handful of world-class footballers and every team that is selected that excludes Waugh or Smith is wantonly wasting one such player.
Smith, as the incumbent starting openside flanker, doesn't see the selection dilemma being resolved on the grounds of, fair's fair ... you've had two Tests, now it's Phil's turn.
"No," Smith responded directly when asked whether he saw this Test as an opportunity to bring Waugh up to speed before the start of the Tri-Nations.
"What I can do in my control is play some good football and contribute to the team in a way that needs to be done."
Did he not think Waugh needed some game time?
"I think he's played a lot of football," Smith said.
"It's out of our control in terms of game time. He's a hard worker off the paddock and definitely does all the work that needs to be done."
If that rivalry sounds intense, consider how the temperature must be rising in the Australian second-row as veteran Nathan Sharpe and newcomer James Horwill forge a new partnership, while at the same time realising that almost certainly one of them will be dropped once Dan Vickerman returns from ankle surgery for the Perth Test.
In Vickerman's absence, Horwill has maintained the abrasiveness levels in the Australian pack, while displaying a Vickerman-like engine in getting through a tremendous amount of work around the field.
But the response from Sharpe, who has been criticised in the past for appearing to coast when the pressure has been off, has been nothing short of astounding.
Horwill has the Australian lineout functioning as well as it has in years while dramatically lifting his workrate.
"I guess we are competing," he said.
"But then everyone is competing for spots."
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html
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Originally Posted by Scotty
