Wallabies still look like a cracker outfit

By CHRIS LAIDLAW

There has been idle speculation lately that, somehow, Australian rugby has peaked and must inevitably begin to turn downward before the next World Cup. Anyone who believes that is indulging in wishful thinking.

The shape of the Wallaby squad for this year's Tri-Nations says more than enough about the Australian succession process.

It is a very satisfying blend of youth and experience, and it shows just how successful the Australian system of bringing prospective Wallabies through to maturity really is.

If you discount the absence, presumably for disciplinary reasons, of Rod Kafer, the squad was so predictable that almost anyone could have selected it.

In addition to the old guard of Eales, Finegan, Foley, Herbert, Tune, Larkham, Gregan, Roff, Burke and Connors, all of whom will have set their sights on just one more World Cup, there is a nucleus of players in mid-career who will provide the continuity between the old and the new.

David Giffin, Andrew Walker, Matt Cockbain, Chris Whitaker, Nathan Grey, Toutai Kefu and Chris Latham are seasoned performers whose standards can now be fully relied on.

But it is the newcomers who offer the most inspiration.

Just look at the array of rapidly maturing players who, thanks to the rigorous prep school of the Super 12, are clearly earmarked well in advance for their first World Cup in 2003.

Jeremy Paul will succeed Michael Foley this year, having shown that he is now a truly international-class hooker.

Justin Harrison and Nathan Sharpe may lack bulk, but they seem to make up for that with exceptional ball sense and an ability to be everywhere, a bit like the young Ian Jones. Both are satisfying backups to Eales and Giffin.

George Smith has become the leading openside flanker in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world. He is an asset of huge importance to the future of the team and he is backed up by Phil Waugh and David Lyons, who are not far behind.

Add Elton Flatley, Nick Stiles, Glen Panaho, Rod Moore, James Holbeck, Ben Darwin and Graham Bond, who are the reliable journeymen of Australian rugby, and you have a pretty formidable line-up.

The only possible question-marks are at prop, where the experience level is lower and the testing process isn't yet complete.

The most distinctive feature of this squad is that there are really only four or five players who are truly great by world standards, yet all the rest are so finely tuned to the essentials of winning - ball retention, basic handling and passing skills, a clear sense of position no matter what the circumstances and an ability to contribute to the rapid recycling of possession time after time - that we can expect an absolute minimum of mistakes from them.

The Wallabies, not to put too fine a point on it, have all the bases covered: unmatched lineout ability, a solid and secure scrum, dazzling distribution skills among the halves, speed and certainty in midfield, creativity combined with good sense out wide, exceptional speed to the breakdowns and an all-round ability to recycle possession faster than

their opponents.

They aren't huge but they sure are focused.

Are they beatable? Of course. Any team is beatable if you can do the basic things better than they do on the day.

Are the All Blacks capable of that this year? Of course they are, but it is going to take an almost flawless technical effort topped by real inspiration from the superstars to pull it off.