Rugby: Deans' kids rising to a World Cup peak

Robbie Deans has pursued a four-year plan. Photo / Getty Images

Confidence and belief can be an explosive cocktail when possessed by the Wallabies. The danger levels rise significantly when the man at the helm has a proven track record of managing campaigns and getting his team to peak at the right time.

Robbie Deans is now most definitely the enemy. Australia are the team the All Blacks have to fear the most; the team best equipped to beat them at the World Cup. South Africa and England are the knockout kings; the champions of conservative rugby who can grind out results on big occasions. But the All Blacks will be less worried about those two than the Wallabies.

The All Blacks know what they will get with the Boks. They can prepare, strategise and stand up to them should they meet in the semi-final as scheduled. England are much the same, but not so Australia. They are the only team that can play the All Blacks at their own game - high tempo, ball-in-hand rugby built on turnover possession and the use of clever running lines.

Of particular concern is gauging how much more the Wallabies have to come. Some Kiwis will try to find solace in Deans' patchy record since he took over in 2008. There have been defeats to Scotland and Samoa, a draw with Ireland and 10 painful consecutive losses to the All Blacks. Under Deans, the Wallabies have only won 56 per cent of their tests. It's hardly convincing but the clever thing about Deans is that he has treated his four-year tenure as a campaign.

He was hired with the goal of coaching the Wallabies to World Cup victory in 2011. While everyone else has lived in the present, Deans has carefully plotted his way to this point. The Wallabies are infinitely better now than they were in 2008 and the worry is they have unstoppable momentum and a team, a bit like the All Blacks of 2005, who only have to turn up and breathtaking rugby will magically be produced.

Just as Alex Ferguson proved everyone wrong in 1998 when he won the Premier League with kids, Deans could do the same at the World Cup. The Wallabies' greatest weapon is their youthful exuberance.

Will Genia, Quade Cooper, James O'Connor and Kurtley Beale are preposterously young yet disproportionately experienced, with a surprising number of test caps accrued. Deans has nurtured them, showing scant regard for the senior professionals who stood in their way.

Matt Giteau, Stirling Mortlock and Lote Tuqiri may all have made the World Cup under softer regimes. Not on Deans' watch. Sentiment hasn't been a hindrance and it is testament to the cold calculations of the coach that his selections in 2011 induce only excitment rather than bewilderment.

There is no griping across the ditch about who is not involved. Deans has a team the nation believes in and the victory in Hong Kong last year obviously pulled a cork out mentally.

A few weeks later they destroyed France 59-16 in a performance that was frightening. The backs were untouchable which might explain why Ma'a Nonu said at the end of the All Blacks' November tour that they no longer had the best backline in world rugby. The Wallabies, in his opinion, had the edge being a potent mix of ball players and strike runners.

The Wallabies forward pack will never win global respect. They still can't scrum with the best and there isn't a vicious type among them. It makes them vulnerable against the Boks and England because, even though the Wallabies know what is coming, they are not always able to cope.

But against the All Blacks, their weaknesses are easier to protect. The All Blacks prefer playing higher-risk rugby with tackled and turnover ball being the key contests. That's what the Wallabies want, too. They have an excellent openside in David Pocock and a loose trio that can effectively counter-ruck and poach. Their tight five can survive this type of contest.

Deans knows the All Blacks can't resist the lure of an all-out attacking contest and he's confident his Wallabies have the edge.