All Blacks: Barnes ready for stand-in Wallabies role

A former teammate who inadvertently enhanced Quade Cooper's rugby career through injury and deserting Queensland is now ready to fill his boots as the Wallabies seek to break a Bledisloe Cup losing streak on Saturday.

Unless Cooper's two-test ban for a dangerous tackle during the Wallabies' defeat of South Africa in Brisbane last weekend is overturned, Berrick Barnes will inherit the playmaker role for the first trans-Tasman test of the year here at Etihad Stadium.

The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has appealed against the severity of the punishment to Sanzar. Sanzar is yet to set a hearing on the issue although it is understood the ARU is already resigned to Cooper not featuring in Melbourne.

Its priority is apparently to reduce the suspension to enable him to play in the second Bledisloe Cup test in Christchurch on August 7.

Both teams are named tomorrow and indications are Barnes and Mat Giteau will combine as dual playmakers, a partnership Wallabies head coach Robbie Deans planned to develop in Japan and Europe last year.

Instead, Barnes was invalided out of that tour before playing a game, opening the way for Cooper to establish himself.

Ironically, Barnes' off-season move to the Waratahs also proved beneficial for Cooper by heaping more responsibility on the talented 22-year-old in the Super 14 competition.

He responded to that challenge and would have started a test against the All Blacks for the first time had he not upended South African counterpart Morne Steyn during the Wallabies' morale-boosting 30-13 Tri-Nations opener.

While Cooper's stocks rose during the Super 14, Barnes has seen his status drop to a bench player and he only started the first test against England in June because of Giteau's late withdrawal.

Still, the 24-year-old is highly rated by the All Blacks, with assistant coach Wayne Smith arguing their task was made no easier by the unorthodox Cooper's likely absence.

"You seldom prepare for one player," Smith said.

"As defence coach I've found it (Australia) quite a difficult team to prepare for because they've got a lot of strategies, a lot of different plays, they switch play quickly and they offload well.

"They give a lot of inside balls - that's a team thing rather than a Quade Cooper thing."

While rating Cooper as clearly one of the form players in the southern hemisphere, the more conservative Barnes is also highly rated.

"Barnes is a very capable player, we've had a bit to do with him the last couple of years," Smith said.

The 23-test veteran was not fazed by the opportunity to step in for one of Australian rugby's hottest properties, a label he was tagged with when he debuted in 2007.

"I don't think there's any more pressure. You're just brought in to do a job," Barnes said.

"I won't play the same sort of style as Quade and do the same sort of things but I'll bring what I can to the table and I'll have a lot of help outside me in the form of Gits (Giteau).

"Gits and I have played together enough to know each other's skill sets."

Barnes was also looking forward to another meeting with the All Blacks even if he has been heavily involved in the Wallabies' current seven-match losing streak against their neighbours.

Barnes has featured in five of the defeats which followed a triumphant start to Deans' Bledisloe Cup rivalry with New Zealand head coach Graham Henry at Sydney in 2008, and admits there is no magic solution to arresting the slide.

"You can dream up big words, at the end of the day we have to finish it off," he said.

"The All Blacks are relentless, they don't stop for the 80, that's something we've been guilty of."

Meanwhile, the All Blacks line-up should feature only one change to the side who beat the Springboks 31-17 in Wellington on July 17, with Joe Rokocoko returning to the left wing for the non-travelling Rene Ranger.

Management are pondering whether to retain Piri Weepu as the starting halfback ahead of Jimmy Cowan given he only joins the squad tomorrow after becoming a father for the first time yesterday.

"He's been through an emotional time, we'll have to see how he is," Smith said.

- NZPA