Wallabies lose another star hours from kickoff

You don’t get many number 10’s as tough as Owen Farrell

Why destroy players beyond safe levels when you can use it to develop new talent. The B team did pretty well against Aussie a few years back.

A legit ANZAC team, in some years might not have many Wallabies in the starting side.

A lot of Oz fans are anti-Cheika - his last 18 - 24 months weren’t great. I personally would like to see him coach Australia again. I think he has consistently proven he is our best qualified coach and I think he is better than when he was there in 2019. A lot of people think that Raelene Castle was a good administrator but I am not in that camp. The Israel Folau situation and the impact it had on some other Polynesian players (Kerevi and Tupou are both on record for saying it caused a split) would have also been extremely difficult to manage. As a former coach (in lower grades) I can’t imagine how I would have been able to handle that side of things in terms of team unity, the demands of the press, and all the additional pressure it placed on the unit.

So, my choice would be to bring Cheika back, but after 2027 (if someone else doesn’t emerge in the meantime). I see LK as part of the JS era (sort of Obama/Biden vibes). Cheika will want to revolutionise and, while I think that will be fine, I don’t think 18 months out from the next RWC is the time to do it. We did that with Eddie and it had diabolical results and I think we are all a bit gun shy about doing the same thing again.

Id say this is more around it no longer being his Sarries and the need to let others lead. This is something he said he actually enjoyed in France.

I think your article and “the old ways” that our commentators latching on to is very poignant. I actually think we may have an advantage (a small one perhaps) at scrum time. And, if the conditions suit etc then that could be pivotal. From the two games I have seen, I can’t see very many other aspects where we (Australia) has an advantage. Maybe kick-offs - Sua’ali’i has some ability here - but I think Faz will have address it by the first test.