Some of these players in the Wallabies are proving to be far more mature than what their age would say. The Wallabies are starting to resemble the Deans Crusader sides of the past in that young inexperienced players come into the side and just step up. The culture in the team is very impressive.
2 big differences with the Crusader teams and this Wallaby team:
1. Robbie Deans didn't create that culture. He inherited it from Wayne Smith. That's not to say that he can't try to emulate it but Wayne Smith is generally regarded as the person who started the current rugby culture in Canterbury.
2. The young players who step up in Canterbury have the mature 'old-heads' along-side them. If you look at Dean's first Super title, it was the Crusaders 3rd title and they had guys like Todd Blackadder, Justin Marshall, Andrew Mehrtens, Reuben Thorne, Norm Maxwell, Darryl Gibson, Mark Hammett and Scott Robertson all with at least 2 or more years experience than the young guns of Greg Sommerville, Ron Cribb, Mark Robinson and Aaron Mauger. And it's always been that way. Not like this Wallabies team where there aren't so many veterans running around.
