Matt O'Connor made an interesting comment recently when it was suggested that Kane Douglas, his newly acquired lock, might be sucked back into the Wallabies November squad by his recently departed Waratahs coach Michael Cheika.
"No, (the ARU) won't change their policy," said the Leinster coach. "Not a chance. It would be the end of Super Rugby in Australia if they are going to pick blokes from abroad."
The Springboks pick South Africans playing in Europe simply because they have so many players and want to keep track of the All Blacks. With the one exception being Dan Carter, leave New Zealand and the Test rugby dream fades (unless you want to play against them).
This is a Rob Simmons interview, by the way. The 25-year-old Queenslander comes from farming stock in a town called Theodore in the Shire of Banana (population: 452). As a lock, Simmons only has James Horwill and Will Skelton to worry about this weather in the battle to reach a half century of Wallaby caps.
He’s should clock up number 49 on Saturday.
Overpowered
From the pack that was overpowered by the Lions last year, Douglas and flanker Ben Mowen now play in Europe, the latter with Montpellier.
‘Honey Badger’ winger Nick Cummins, who shredded the Irish defence 12 months ago, gave some compelling and heartfelt reasons for embracing the Japanese yen (his brother and sister both have cystic fibrosis, while his father Mark has cancer).
Then there’s Matt Giteau, the exiled genius who’s ably filling Jonny Wilkinson’s boots at Toulon, where he plays alongside the often dazzling James O’Connor.
Capped at 17 and now 24, O’Connor is due to return home in January to become eligible for World Cup selection but the others are out of the equation. That’s a shedful of sharp tools out of Cheika’s reach.
“Aw mate, every individual is different and has different reasons why they leave or why they stay,” said Simmons. “They know what they compromise when they make that decision.”
Add the long-term injury to captain David Pocock, the only openside to challenge Richie McCaw’s supremacy since Heinrich Brüssow in 2009, and uncertainty about Kurtley Beale’s ability to be remembered for his insane rugby gifts or off-field behaviour and, well, the state of rugby union in a sports-obsessed nation has been better.
“Yeah, it is tough, especially in Australia where we are a winter sport fighting four other codes to be that number one spot. We’ve just got to put good performances on.”
Far superior
And they do. Despite last year’s mid-week drinking session in Dublin, they were far superior to Ireland come match day.
Last month’s agonising 29-28 defeat to New Zealand in Brisbane was eerily similar to Ireland’s fate against McCaw’s machine.
At least they can’t lose to Wales. Nor do they ever know when they are beaten. That was evident in Paris last Saturday.
They have players like Michael Hooper, Israel Folau, Tevita Kuridrani – a beastly figure at centre – who are all capable of extraordinary feats.
And now Cheika.
“He is the kingpin, he is the boss. He is honest, genuine.
“He doesn’t get angry. It seems like he does when he raises his voice, but he lowers his voice as well when he is on that emotional wave, when he wants everyone to be better. He is trying to solve the problem.”
Like the way Ireland don’t always engage the opposition’s maul. England copied the tactic against South Africa at Twickenham. “I’ve used it myself at the Reds. Doesn’t always work. It’s not as easy as it looks. You can’t just stand off. There are a lot of little rules around that that you have to be smart with. The ref doesn’t always rule it the way we think it’s going to go. If they don’t, it can be quite detrimental to step off.”
Is it proper rugby?
“It’s definitely proper rugby. It’s in the law book. You play the game to the rules, don’t you?”
