Australia
Cheika flags half-a-dozen big Wallabies selections
August 17, 2015
World Cup preparations suffer blow: Moore

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says he has around half-a-dozen big decisions to make before settling on his 31-man Rugby World Cup squad, due to be unveiled on Friday.

Back in Sydney after Australia's Bledisloe Cup humiliation at Eden Park in Auckland, focus in the Wallabies camp has shifted to the World Cup in England and Wales, and, more urgently, surviving the final cuts to the wider training squad.

There are huge calls to be made all over the park, in every row of the scrum and in particular the 9-10-12 playmaking axis that seems to be stuck in a continual stage of selection flux.

The six or so "key choices" Cheika estimates he has to make will be influenced by what type of squad configuration the Australian staff opts to take, and how many specialist position players will be included.

"The rest we'd say is locked in from our point of view," Cheika said after returning home from Auckland 24 hours after the 41-13 defeat by New Zealand.

"I believe we're getting close to knowing exactly who we're liking in what roles ... but we've got until Friday. We're just going to let the day sink in the basic idea that we have over the next few days."

Israel Folau was one of Australia's best in Auckland © Getty Images
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New Zealand 41-13 Australia (Australia only)
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Cheika said he had no regrets over the amount of changes he made to the Wallabies team for the Bledisloe decider, some of which clearly backfired.

"That was always the plan," he said.

"We've got to back all our players, and I do, I back any of the players selected. If we want to grow the depth in the team, that's how we've got to do it."

Having exposed his players to the unforgiving cauldron of Eden Park, Cheika should have learned plenty about who will stand up under intense pressure at the World Cup - in particular, the blockbuster pool clash against England at Twickenham.

Australia's Quade Cooper cops the boos as he is sent to the sin-bin, New Zealand v Australia, Bledisloe Cup, Eden Park, Auckland, August 15, 2015
Quade Cooper copped plenty of boos in Auckland © Getty Images
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Australia clearly lost out with an underdone Wycliff Palu in the back-row instead of David Pocock, while the second-half yellow card to Quade Cooper triggered a penalty-try before the All Blacks capitalised on their one-man advantage with two more tries.

But the rest of Cooper's 48 minutes earned him a pass mark from Cheika, and the Wallabies were reasonably effective with him at the helm, in particular across the first 30 minutes. Cheika's other options at 10 seem less appealing by the minute, with Matt Toomua underwhelming at inside centre and making some costly errors in Auckland; but neither Bernard Foley nor Toomua are in any danger of missing the cut.

Then there's the three-way battle between Nic White, Nick Phipps and Will Genia for what's likely to be two half-back vacancies, given that Matt Giteau can also act as cover. White's below-par tackling may have been fatal to his hopes just a week after his match-winning cameo off the bench at ANZ Stadium, but Genia, who should be fit for Australia's last warm-up game, against the United States on September 5, having recovered from knee surgery, has not played for a month. Genia remains Australia's only bonafide world-class half-back, however, and intriguingly he sits on 59 caps - just one short of the threshold that would allow him to represent the Wallabies from next year, assuming he honours his contract with Stade Francais.

Further out, winger Taqele Naiyaravoro made one last pitch for inclusion with three tries for a World XV against Japan in Tokyo on Saturday.

Wallabies captain Stephen Moore, bitterly disappointed with the result, warned against throwing the baby out with the bathwater. "We've still done a lot of good things in the last month together," he said.

© AAP

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