Jethro Tah
Bob Loudon (25)
Need a decoy runner? Giteau is your man. Every backline needs one and is the only reason why I see Deans keeping him in the 1st XV.
Preferably you should'nt use the same decoy runners each time, I would like to see the stats on the last time Giteau made a linebreak and actually made it to the try line, or more importantly how many he has made in the last 2 years.
In addition to Lee Byne, Ryan Jones, Jamie Roberts and Dwayne Peel, Leigh Halfpenny is also out for Wales and Andy Powell is unavailable. Centre Jonathan Davies was injured last week and is in doubt. So I think they'll come into this game a little underpowered - they don't have too much depth.
9. Genia (sub at half time)
10. Barnes
11. Mitchell
12. JOC (James O'Connor)
13. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
14. Turner (13 cover)
15. Beale
20. Burgess
21. Giteau
22. Davies
Too small, we need to get some size in our backline.
Sharpie played AFL in his teens. Put him at 15.
Sharpie played AFL in his teens. Put him at 15.
Horwill did too I think.
Can't wait for the winning streak to start
ROBBIE Deans has defused suggestions Matt Giteau's retention in the Test side is heavily dependent on him remaining first-choice goalkicker.
Giteau managed just one goal from four attempts at Hong Kong Stadium and had been replaced by James O'Connor as kicker just before he was substituted in the 63rd minute of Saturday's Bledisloe Cup Test against the All Blacks, with Berrick Barnes taking over his playmaking role during the Wallabies' stirring last-quarter fightback.
Hong Kong now joins the Murrayfield Test against Scotland last year and Australia's two Sydney Tests this season, against England and the All Blacks, as matches where Giteau's errant goalkicking cost the Wallabies dearly.
At least on Saturday his three misses didn't prove fatal, with O'Connor setting up a thrilling finale by converting Drew Mitchell's 60th minute try to critically pull the Wallabies to within five points of the All Blacks before then sensationally converting his own try after the final siren to snatch a 26-24 victory.
With 664 points to his credit in 88 Tests, Giteau ranks third behind Michael Lynagh (911) and Matt Burke (878) on the Australian all-time points-scoring list, but his deteriorating form with the boot has raised questions over whether his general play is sufficient on its own to warrant his retention in the starting XV.
Happily for him, none of those questions has occurred to Deans who insisted yesterday the 28-year-old was not dependent on his goalkicking to justify his place in the side. "It's just one component," Deans said. "It's not the defining component. But we were totally reliant on Gits previously. Now we're not so. That's good for him, good for us."
While Kurtley Beale remains the side's designated long-range goalkicker, thanks to his own last-gasp heroics in Bloemfontein against the Springboks last month, Deans acknowledged O'Connor now had established himself as Giteau's primary back-up. Significantly, he did not rule out the prospect of O'Connor being first-choice kicker when the Wallabies open the European leg of their spring tour, against Wales, on Saturday.
To be fair to Giteau, many of the questions hanging over his place in the side stem not from his own performance, which was solid against the All Blacks, but from the emerging need to have an inside centre whose strong defence might relieve some of the pressure on Quade Cooper.