Wynne Gray: Steady as she goes for under-fire Ockers

Will Skelton of the Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images

The rugby wheeze coming out of Oz is not always on the money.

Leaks from multiple media outlets this week that the gargantuan Will Skelton would start as lock alongside James Horwill would have crinkled a few All Black eyebrows.

When the side was revealed, Sam Carter and Rob Simmons were embedded in the second row as they were for the two earlier transtasman tests. Horwill made the bench, while the huge Skelton shadow will be in the grandstand.

Perhaps it was coach Ewen McKenzie getting in some payback for the pasting he has taken since details of the Kurtley Beale saga began to trickle into the public arena.

Only McKenzie and the embattled management knew what the selection plan was as the Wallabies look for some sort of salve to calm the furnace of self-destruction raging around the team.

One of their calmest who has weathered all sorts of tumult and positional switches since his debut is Adam Ashley-Cooper, the 30-year-old who becomes the sixth Wallaby to play 100 tests.

He has started at centre, wing and fullback across the backline and when teammates have been sin-binned has also covered other roles.

Ashley-Cooper is the Wallabies' answer to Conrad Smith, the calm amongst the maelstrom, a strong voice when decisions have to be made and one of the most reliable men on the international circuit.

It surprises me he is not used more at centre for the Wallabies, where his direction and defensive strengths are so accurate.

With Israel Folau such a dynamic attacking force from fullback, Ashley-Cooper has the class to assess and call the right plays from centre while out on the wing he is used in more of a covering and wide role.

Tevita Kuridrani is a powerful runner at centre who will cut up the All Blacks if he gets the ball and they make the sort of defensive mistakes they made against the Boks. However if he is marked tightly his timing and distribution looks a little uncertain.

Maybe it was a case of McKenzie offering his men a chance for redemption after the troubles on and off the track in Argentina. The injury to Matt Toomua and Simmons' recovery from illness brought the only starting variations.

If that XV doesn't cut it the reinforcements look a bit thin. Quade Cooper suggests some drama, the rest look ordinary compared with the All Black bench. Mind you, the All Blacks have not been lively in their past two visits to Suncorp either.