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Wallabies slug it out

They may have called themselves Possums and Wombats but there was nowhere to hide as players put friendships aside in a bid to secure positions on the Wallabies' end-of-season tour on Thursday morning.

Friday, 09 October 2009

Sportal.co.nz

They may have called themselves Possums and Wombats but there was nowhere to hide as players put friendships aside in a bid to secure positions on the Wallabies' end-of-season tour on Thursday morning.

Two teams of Probables (Wombats) and Possibles (Possums) battled it out for over an hour in front 3,000 onlookers at Sydney's St Ignatius College, in a last-ditch bid to impress Robbie Deans and his fellow selectors.

For the record the Wombats, featuring dual playmakers Berrick Barnes and Matt Giteau, won the match seven-tries-to-two in a physical encounter which saw three players require attention to head wounds while No.8 Stephen Hoiles suffered a minor hamstring strain.

But while the try count was lop sided, coach Robbie Deans, who had a front-row seat on the field of play throughout, suggested several players from both sides has just played their way onto the tour.

While reluctant to name names, centre Ryan Cross and No.8 Wycliff Palu were obvious standouts while Queensland Reds academy player Richard Kingi and Waratahs hooker Damien Fitzpatrick also made an impact.

"It was great, just what we needed," Deans said.

"We lack rugby, our opposition are all playing week to week and that was as close to ... well it was a game essentially, so that's good for us in terms of our conditioning."

"It's also good for us in terms of exposing the whole group to what we're about. The reality is while we've got to settle on a (35-man) squad tomorrow morning there's still a pretty high prospect of those that miss out getting a call over the next few weeks."

While highly critical of his side's commitment in the dying stages of the heavy loss to the All Blacks in Wellington, Deans praised his players' approach to Thursday's trial.

"The good thing was that it didn't deteriorate into self-interest," he said.

"The blokes still thought about their team and how they can serve their team, and those are the traits we're looking for."

"I think (their commitment) was evident there today. We're working on that as a group collectively and that's management and players."

"We've got some ideas that we're obviously going to work on to hopefully just take that last step."

Barnes, who spent noticeably more time at flyhalf than Giteau for the star-studded Wombats, said the in-house match was the ideal preparation ahead of the tour opener against the All Blacks in Tokyo on October 31.

"It was a pretty solid hit-out that's for sure," Barnes said.

"It was a good contest out there for us and a good way to blow a few cobwebs out after a few weeks off."

Pressed on his apparent switch to flyhalf, a coy Barnes said: "Me and Gitty are working with a few things at the moment and trying to sort out combinations - who's where and what works best for both players."

"So we'll keep tinkering with those sort of things in the coming weeks and hopefully we can get some fluency back in our game and obviously get the enjoyment back as a team."

Nine players sat out the match through injury including lock Nathan Sharpe (shoulder) and winger Nick Cummins (foot) who have both been ruled out of the tour.

In better news, Stirling Mortlock, Digby Ioane, James Horwill, Benn Robinson, Sekope Kepu, Rocky Elsom and Phil Waugh are all expected to resume training next week.

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