Three very different five-eighths have three more days to persuade Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie they have what it takes to face the All Blacks in Australia's Rugby Championship-opening Bledisloe Cup Test on August 17.

McKenzie is widely expected to reinstate Queensland Reds' Quade Cooper as Wallabies playmaker, having already made it clear he won't select incumbent James O'Connor in the No.10 jumper for the Test at ANZ Stadium, but he is yet to show his hand and uncapped Matt Toomua and Bernard Foley may yet be fighting for a bench spot in camp in Sydney this week. McKenzie will cull the squad to 30 players on Friday, with no guarantee all three will make the cut.

Cooper has a big edge in experience over the other two having played 38 Tests, though he's been out of international rugby for 11 months since falling out of favour with Robbie Deans. The quick-stepping Queenslander also has the longest passing game of the three pivots. New South Wales Waratahs pivot Foley likes to take the ball to the line, meanwhile, and young Brumbies star Toomua is a playmaking all-rounder noted for punishing defence.

Matt Toomua played a starring role for the Brumbies against the British & Irish Lions © Getty Images

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Asked if he intended giving Cooper a run for his money at training this week, a sheepish Toomua chuckled and said: "I don't know how to answer that, we'll see. It would mean a lot to make the shorter squad. There's obviously three of us there at the moment, fighting for however many positions Ewen chooses, so it's very exciting having the opportunity to be here now."

Toomua is confident his big-match experience accumulated in the Brumbies' run to the Super Rugby final will stand him in good stead if thrust into the cauldron of a Bledisloe Cup contest. "I've taken a lot from the finals series and it's good to have these runs under your belt in a sense for confidence going into big games," he said.

Having been tutored by rugby luminaries Jake White and Stephen Larkham at the Brumbies, Toomua is looking forward to absorbing more knowledge from McKenzie and the Wallabies' coaching team.

"It's exciting learning new ideas about how the game can and should be played," Toomua said. "It's exciting as a playmaker, because you're heavily involved in that. I'm really looking forward to these next few days in terms of picking the brains of some really smart rugby heads."