Last year the Oz Baas team who played against England in Gosford was the Oz A team.
IIRR the Wallabies had 30 players for their domestic season before 3N and added 10 players for the Barbarians game. Those 10 most probably played in the Baas 22 (I'm too lazy to check) which meant that 12 from the original squad of 30 would have joined them. In other words: at most 18 were protected, though there were probably fewer because of injuries to the extended group of 40 by game time.
Oz already has 40 players in their training squad who have received all the training content. Add in some of Mitchell, Barnes, Cowan, Robinson and Horne, who were not in the 40 but may be healthy by game time, and deduct some of Daley, Palu, TPN and Slipper, who were in the 40 but may not be healthy by then, and you still come up with about 40 available for the game.
Since the RWC squad of 30 is chosen on Thursday, anybody selected who is healthy enough to play in the match, and who Deans thinks needs game time, should be first pick for the Baas. The other spots should go to those of the original squad of 40, plus the 1st 4 mentioned above, who missed out on the RWC and are available to play.
There may be a bolter or two needed: Deans may protect most of the 30 and some may be needed to smooth out the positions profile of the Baas squad of 22 anyway. On the other hand some may not get a game because too many are available for a certain spot.
That was just thinking out aloud for my own benefit but it may be of interest to others.