4. Form is temporary…
Every year we are faced with the same debate around this time, and every year there is the same wailing and gnashing of teeth from certain quarters. It is the debate about picking form players for the Wallabies, or experienced, proven commodities. And every year, the latter is always favoured over the former.
So when you see guys like Barnes, McCabe and Dennis picked for the Wallabies, please don’t be surprised and please don’t come and whinge here about how this is a phenomena unique to Robbie Deans. I can’t remember a Wallaby coach who has given more weight to form than experience. I can’t think of a coach in any code for that matter.
Yes we will see one or two debutants for the Lions series. These are the players who have shown sustained outstanding Super form, so much so that they cannot be ignored. This year only a couple of players fall into this category- Israel Folau and Christian Lealiifano are two, and maybe Jesse Mogg and Ben Mowen. That is all. So don’t get your hopes up about Kyle Godwin or Fotu Auleua or Scott Sio or Bernard Foley or Ed Quirk. They ain’t gonna be there. The faster you accept this the faster you can get over it and get on with your life.
And in reality there is only one or two of these ‘proven’ players who I could even see an argument that they shouldn’t be there. Pat McCabe is one due to his lack of playing time. Berrick Barnes receives a lot of baseless hate here, but I would certainly pick him based on 2012 EOYT form and the fact that he showed enough in 10 minutes on Saturday to prove he is still up to it.
