Waugh principle favours LathamIN the pecking order of sporting heroes, few rank higher with cricket tragic cum Wallabies coach Eddie Jones than Steve Waugh, and any rugby player who warrants comparison with the former Australia captain can count himself a certain Test selection.
All of which means it will be
Chris Latham not Drew Mitchell who will occupy the fullback position when the Wallabies play the opening Test of their tour against France in Marseille next Saturday.
While Mitchell's last Test outing as starting fullback was marred by a couple of handling errors, one of which led directly to an All Blacks try at Eden Park, his electrifying form in his previous two Tri-Nations appearances made him the only Australian to win a place in Planet Rugby's all-star team named at the end of the tournament.
If it were any other player but Latham returning from injury, Mitchell, 21, probably would have fought off the challenge.
Jones, however, made it abundantly clear on the
team's arrival in France on Thursday that if Mitchell is in the Test side it will be as a winger not as fullback. That he holds such regard for Latham will strike many as surprising, staggering even.
It wasn't that long ago many in the media regarded the Queensland Reds' gamebreaker as Jones' fall guy, the hapless chump who inevitably would be dropped at the first hint of reckless play.
As incongruous as even Jones admitted it sounded to be drawing flannelled fools analogies while in Montpellier, deep in the south of France, he could not stop himself comparing Latham's gritty turnaround to that of Australian cricket's most dominant captain."It's a bit like Steve Waugh who came into the Test arena with every shot imaginable and didn't score any runs," Jones said.
"He got dropped but then came back with a game that was impregnable at Test level.
"That's what Test football is all about. The good Test players are those who do things consistently well, whose error rate is very small. Regardless of what anyone says, they're the players who play the best rugby."
There is no doubt that in the not-too-distant past, Latham, 30 last month, was considered a dangerous dazzler, a player with a penchant for the daring, be it the delicately weighted chip kick, the regathered midfield bomb or the Campese-like willingness to take on any number of defenders, no matter how isolated he was. All of which made him as difficult to play alongside as to play against.
The rumour was that Jones banned all his little tricks and thrust him into a safety-first straitjacket. The Wallabies coach denies that.
"I've never told him not to do things. What I've told him is that he has to do things better. And I'm really pleased for him because it (the turnaround) has come from within him. He has made his game so much more solid. In his last season of Test rugby he has been outstanding."
The other spin-off from Latham's return is that Mat Rogers will go into the mix for a wing position if he is not retained at five-eighth, with Jones insisting it is a 50-50 bet whether he goes with Rogers or Matt Giteau in the playmaker role.
With Mark Gerrard battling to demonstrate that he has recovered from his latest hamstring relapse, Wendell Sailor almost certainly will reclaim the right wing spot, leaving Mitchell and Rogers as left-wing contenders only if Jones decides to continue his experiment with Lote Tuqiri at outside centre.
Performances in Monday's Australia A match against the French Barbarians in Bordeaux should clarify the situation, although Jones' primary interest in the match is to check out his eight uncapped players.
"There will be some established players in the 22 but they won't have a key role to play," he said. "Certainly we want to win but I want to see these young guys play, even if it's just for 20 or 30 minutes."
Meanwhile, Queensland hooker
Stephen Moore will join the Australian squad in France after Adam Freier injured his groin at training. Freier sustained the injury during an indoor session in Montpellier.
Rugby - The Sunday Mail
30 October 2005
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au
PS La retransmission du match en direct sur France Télévision débutera à partir de 20 h 35 samedi soir (heure de Marseille) avec des pré-interviews et images des Test-Matchs précédents entre la France et l'Australie sur France 2. Trois reportages intéressants sont également prévus dans le journal de France 2 vers 20 h 10, le journal du Sport vers 20 h 15 sur France 3, et la présentation des équipes vers 20 h 45 sur France 2. Le coup d'envoi du match est prévu à 20 h 50 sur France 2.