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Out-of-favour Waratahs prop Benn Robinson hasn’t given up hope of Wallabies recall
Jamie Pandaram, Carly Adno
The Daily Telegraph
August 05, 2014 7:00PM
A DISAPPOINTED Benn Robinson has vowed to “keep playing harder” after being snubbed for Wallabies selection yet again by coach Ewen McKenzie, who has opted to experiment with his front row.
Robinson’s celebration of NSW’s Super Rugby premiership has been slightly soured by his non-selection after Scott Sio left Wallabies camp with a serious ankle injury.
McKenzie instead opted for Melbourne’s Laurie Weeks, a tighthead prop, instead of loosehead Robinson.
“Of course, it’s always tough, I’ve played for the Wallabies for a long, long time, to miss out is really disappointing,” Robinson said on Tuesday at Martin Place, where 5000 fans gathered to applaud the NSW squad for their grand final victory over the Crusaders last weekend.
Asked what he had to do to get back in the national squad and add to his 66 Test caps, 30-year-old Robinson said: “I don’t know, I think just keep playing harder.
“I thought the last three or four games were probably the best of my season, for me personally I’ve really enjoyed playing the game.
“The last games I thought were my best performances, I’m still a fresh-faced 30-year-old so I’ve still got a lot of years left in front of me.
“I’ll be playing in the NRC, and if he wants to give me a call-up I’ll put my hand up as high as possible.
“If the cards fall my way I’ll be very happy. I’m not going to slacken now, I’ll be straight back into training, working hard.”
Robinson was dropped from the squad when McKenzie took over last year, then fought his way back after injuries by the end of the season.
However, he was again overlooked for the French series earlier this year.
When Sio, a loosehead, was ruled out it appeared Robinson would get the nod given his outstanding form for the premiers late in the season.
But McKenzie said he had been grooming Sio to play at tighthead, meaning his loss created a gap on the opposite side of the scrum to where Robinson plies his trade.
McKenzie said Robinson remained in the frame.
“He’s definitely on the radar, we’re concentrating on the tighthead prop side of things,” McKenzie said.
“There’s a bunch of options at loosehead. We still watch, and have been watching, and obviously I think Benn Robinson has been playing pretty well of late. So he’s certainly not out of the picture, not at all.
“We had a conversation around that time [of the French series]. I’ve been watching him every week.
“I think he’s been playing better since that time, so he’s not out of the picture at all.”
McKenzie added: “We’ve been looking at the prop situations, from the June series, and tighthead prop is an area that we’ve been looking at.
“One of the thoughts we’ve had was about Sio’s potential as a tighthead, it’s not about playing Test matches now as a tighthead, but his potential as a tighthead is something we wanted to have a look at.
“We were interested to see, again, in the spirit of developing depth in the tighthead side of the scrum.
“Obviously he’s now injured, and Laurie was there, and didn’t do a bad job for us in June. So we’ve called him in. [Sekope] Kepu’s ability to play loosehead as well gives us a bit of flexibility.”
Nathan Charles will start at hooker in the Bledisloe Cup opener on August 16 after Tatafu Polota-Nau was ruled out for the opening two games with a knee injury, while James Hanson will be back-up and NSW youngster Tolu Latu will join the squad in case of another injury.
Meanwhile, McKenzie brushed off the idea of any advantage for the Bledisloe after All Blacks superstar Dan Carter was ruled out for the opening two games with a crack in his fibula, suffered against the Waratahs last Saturday.
“It hasn’t changed our mindset, they’ve got [Beauden] Barrett, they’ve got [Aaron] Cruden, an embarrassment of riches there,” McKenzie said.
“That probably makes the selection situation easier for them, someone was going to miss out so that probably makes it a bit clearer in how they pick it.
“From our point of view, we’re concentrating on ourselves and we’ll play whoever they put out there.”
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