I guess there’s no hyperbole then, because no one has made that claim or point.
They were quite inconsistent. Rogers wasn’t a regular starter. Wendell’s form was poor so much so he struggled to even make test day 22’s. Lote took a couple of seasons at least to learn how to hit a ruck properly. H did come good in the end though and was pretty effective at test level without being a star. Again these guys were on massive money and I don’t think relative to their pay it was a success. What we saw after was the likes of Cross and Tahu also demanding big money.
Highest Wallaby tryscorers:
David Campese - 64
Chris Latham - 40
Adam Ashley-Cooper - 37
Drew Mitchell - 34
Lote Tuqiri - 30
Joe Roff - 30
Matt Giteau - 30
Tim Horan - 30
Israel Folau - 30
Matt Burke - 29
Stirling Mortlock - 29
Lote's equal 5th in terms of highest Wallaby tryscorers with 30 tries. Most people would say that most players in that list are 'stars'.
He's also one of only four Wallabies to score 4 or more tries in a game.
That's pretty star-like in my opinion.
Matt Rogers has scored the most points ever by a single player in a Wallaby match. He also played 45 games for those who suggest he was "always injured". In those games he scored 14 tries. Pretty good strike rate.
Wendell scored 17 tries in 16 games for Australia.
I'm not saying they're the greatest players we've ever had, but I also get annoyed when people make them out to be sub-par players who only had the odd, far-inbetween moment of brilliance.
Cross and Tahu were flops but Rogers, Wendell and Tuqiri were great individuals to have in the rugby union camp.