Deans to experiment with Beale, Turner at fullback

[mudskipper]

IF you look closely at the 43-man Wallabies training squad announced on Monday, Kurtley Beale and Lachie Turner will trial at fullback at next week's camp in Sydney, while Dean Mumm, Richard Brown and Stephen Hoiles will run as blindside flankers.

When Wallabies coach Robbie Deans announced the Tri-Nations squad in July, the players were named in alphabetical order and their positions were denoted.

But in Monday's media release from the ARU the players were not named in alphabetical order nor were their positions indicated. Given the first player named was fullback James O'Connor and the last was hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, you have to try to work out the positions by demarcation.

The important thing to remember about this training squad is that the players will be put into a competitive environment to determine the 35 players who will make the tour to Japan and Britain next month.

Perhaps this explains why players have been (invisibly) bracketed in certain positions.

With five Tests and two midweek games on tour, Deans must select a squad that includes players who can win now and also be developed for later. Turner and Beale were listed as fullbacks as part of Deans's plan to develop depth at number 15.

With Drew Mitchell, Digby Ioane, Nick Cummins and Peter Hynes as the wingers, at least one of these outside backs will not tour. You would think it would be Cummins, but maybe he can put pressure on Mitchell or Hynes.

Ryan Cross, Stirling Mortlock, Rob Horne and Adam Ashley-Cooper were listed as the outside centres with Matt Giteau, Quade Cooper and Berrick Barnes the "five-eighths" as Deans would say in New Zealand-speak.

Giteau, Cooper and Barnes are all certain to tour, which means one of the outside centres will probably miss out.

Ashley-Cooper is established as a starter at either outside centre or fullback; Mortlock may or may not captain the Wallabies, but they will need his experience and physicality; Horne is a rising player who will be groomed for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand. This means Cross is the most vulnerable number 13.

There are four halfbacks in the squad: Josh Valentine, Will Genia, Luke Burgess and Richard Kingi. Deans will be keen to develop depth in the halfback position, which means he could take all four. Genia is a certainty and Kingi will most likely go as a development player, which means Burgess and Valentine may fight it out if only three tour.

Wycliff Palu and George Smith were the number eights with David Pocock and Phil Waugh covering openside flanker. They are all almost certain to tour, although Waugh is in doubt with a quadriceps injury.

Brown and Hoiles normally play number eight, while Mumm has been in the second row, but they were listed at number six with Matt Hodgson and Rocky Elsom. If Waugh is ruled out, Hodgson could cover openside flanker. Bolters Mitch Chapman and Ben McCalman float between blindside flanker and second row, but with Nathan Sharpe (shoulder) and James Horwill (foot) in doubt, they were named among the locks with Mark Chisholm and David Dennis.

The biggest representation of any position is prop if you do not differentiate between tighthead and loosehead with Al Baxter, Matt Dunning, Pek Cowan, Sekope Kepu, Salesi Ma'afu, Ben Alexander and Benn Robinson.

Alexander, Robinson and Cowan are likely to tour as they are current members of the 22-man match-day squad.

Does Deans then look to the past and resurrect Baxter and Dunning or gaze to the future and take Ma'afu and Kepu?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html

[chook]

Could you combine the wings and fullback into one package? I don't see Beale as a fullback really,and i''m more comfortable with Turner on the wing, cos he is fast, you know.

[James]

Hard to see Beale as much other than a fullback at Test level. There is less tackling and it is generally easier and lets face it Beale is a bouncy-ball when it comes to tackling. He definitely can't handle the traffic at 10 or 12. Turner is worth a shot though.

[mudskipper]

Turner fullback makes me shiver... as does JOC returning, bench the boy for a while... If the Morto-metre is good AAC will play full back he is the best we've got currently

[chook]

Notch Beale down to being a good S14 flyhalf, eventually. Turnstyle tackling does not cut it inthe upper echelons. But who cares about Test Rugby anyway. Its a farce. Non entertaining and we only get interested in it in the forlorn hope we can beat theold enemies in a penalty contest. S14 is the shit.

[James]

Maybe its just the way the Wallabies played in their last game but I kind of agree with you Chookie. I kind of see now why everyone in the North raves about the Heineken Cup.

[chook]

S14 is much more entertaining.

I couldnt be bothered getting excited about Test Rugby where its all about protection and field position to the detriment of attack. Whoo Hoo, lets go to a rugby game and watch a good defensive side. Yay, lets pay top dollar for that.

Maybe the Wallabies just don't have the atheletes to choose from. Maybe they have no heartlidge. Raid NRL I say.

[GIGS20]

OK, I'm just running off to check the by-line, because I reckon this smells like Bret Harriss' work. the only two people he's sure aren't going to be picked are Cummo (not really a huge call) and Crossy.

Surprising how both of them play for the force!

I also think he has selectively remembered a lot of matches. He counts Turner as a fullback and Mitchell as a wing, however both have stunk up a storm at fullback and neither are an option for anything other than wing IMHO.

I reckon Cross'll tour with AAC filling a utility spot, leaving room for a specialist 13 who's likely to remain fit for the whole tour.

Beale is likely to tour, he's probably not going to get much time, but could cover several gaps in the AAC mould. If you were desperate, he could even play 10 (of course if this happens, you'd have nobody to play 12.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Cullet gets a ticket as the development player, because he's got a bit more of a physical presence to him, but is still quick. Not up to Digby's standard, admittedly, but potential. For mine, Mitchell would be a good one to rule out (possibly with a pencil if injury or poor form requires it) If you look at a lot of those names, there is plenty of versatilityin the backline. Digby, Cooper, Giteau, Barnes AAC, Rabbit and Beale can all cover more than one position, so there could easily be a bit of that sort of theory in why specific positions weren't named.

---------- Post added at 23:04 ---------- Previous post was at 23:02 ----------

what a surprise, it WAS Bret......you could almost hear the excitement in his voice when he mentioned Sharpie mightn't tour due to injury.

Did Mitch shit on his doorstep?