The 2005 Wallabies must be one hell of a side, rather than a side in a hell of a state, if they can afford to drop an outside-half as potent as Matt Giteau to the bench and dump a wing as powerful as Wendell Sailor from their test squad altogether.
The tourists' diabolical results since late July - half a dozen defeats, no victories - are clearly a clever ruse designed to kid the gullible English, who they play at Twickenham tomorrow, into dismissing them as a team on the skids.
Either that or Eddie Jones has his back pressed more firmly against the wall than the profit-loss ledger suggests.
Giteau, groomed for some years now as the play-making successor to Stephen Larkham, and Sailor, a hulking great brute of a finisher who was lured from league at considerable expense, may not have covered themselves in glory in the match against France last weekend, but they are central to the coach's planning for the 2007 World Cup.
Jones must be in dire straits if he feels obliged to give them the heave-ho at this precise moment, desperate as he is for any sort of win.
Mat Rogers, sufficiently flexible to play in any of six positions behind the scrum but a fullback by instinct, takes over at No 10 - a role performed by enough Wallaby legends, from Phil Hawthorne and Mark Ella to Michael Lynagh and the sublime Larkham, to sink the proverbial battleship.
Rogers is some footballer, but his rugby league background raises questions over his grasp of union-specific duties, of which there are more at stand-off than anywhere else.
On the wings, Warringah's Mark Gerrard, 23, and Queenslander Drew Mitchell, 22, have been paired together.
Mitchell played three Tri-Nations matches at full-back during August, caught the eye in each of them and even contrived to put a try past the All Blacks in Sydney.
Gerrard also knows what it is to score against New Zealand, so it can be assumed he's nobody's fool either.
All the same, Jones had some explaining to do yesterday.
"Wendell was disappointing in Marseilles last Saturday - he didn't give us the go-forward we needed," said the coach, who has also awarded a first test start to Brisbane lock Hugh McMenamin, 22, who is seen as the new John Eales by some of his more expectant countrymen.
"As for Matt, it was a difficult decision. He's still coming to terms with the outside-half position and just at the moment, we see Rogers and Morgan Turinui as our best 10-12 combination."
With John Roe replacing the more substantial Rocky Elsom on the blind-side flank, this is not the Wallaby side England expected to meet.
Perhaps that is the point. As Rogers said yesterday: "We just want to win a footy game."
The element of surprise being as valuable as it is, Jones may just have struck gold. Then again ...
- INDEPENDENT
The 2005 Wallabies must be one hell of a side, rather than a side in a hell of a state, if they can afford to drop an outside-half as potent as Matt Giteau to the bench and dump a wing as powerful as Wendell Sailor from their test squad altogether.
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