The possible thinking behind this is that Giteau might be have been able to do it for a mate who is facing a tough battle and it's his old team/where he grew up etc.
It's not as if any of the NRC 10's for the Vikings grabbed their chances and the way it's looking for 2017 is that a rookie will be chucked in the deep end in that position.
There's talk of Lealiifano being a mentor/coach but that would depend if he is able to do that in person and that would depend on his recovery from his transplant.
The sentiment is nice and would be great at club level but this is a professional sport so its a performance based requirement, not a heart string job; and having rookies is not a new thing.
I agree with what you are saying about any of the 10's in the NRC which begs the question why Thompson is in the mix and training? Why was Jooste not tagged early as only EPS standard for 2017? Why have we not had more cover drafted in and why we are so thin on the ground with play-makers; even without Christian's diagnosis an injury could have us in the same situation and we all knew Toouma was going.
Was this a case of more sentiment and flogging the Robbie Coleman donkey a little too much? Robbie wasn't even up to NRC standard this year.
It has to asked why are we so late in the day with trying to find a 10? This has been coming for at least the last year if not 2. The Brumbies back-line has been woeful and its common knowledge that we were lacking depth at 10 (any) and 12 (of good quality) for an extended period.
It's would be a fair question to ask how a Super Rugby HC and Wallabies backline coach can be so well pants by failing to recruit to fix a known issue.
Maybe the reason the Brumbies are having this and many other issues is a problem with sentiment and emotional attachments rather than being sufficiently professional and performance based.