Nick Cain looks at the way Michael Cheika is trying to rebuild the Australian scrum

Michael CheikaAustralian have traditionally struggled to match for size and strength, but Michael Cheika is on a mission to change that. We will get an early indicator of whether the new coach's rebuilt Wallabies – including a recast scrum – will be a juggernaut, or road-kill, when they face their first serious examination against the in the opening round of the Rugby in Brisbane on Saturday.
Cheika is no sentimentalist, and both the trimmed-down Wallaby squad of 31 for the Rugby Championship, selected this week, and the long squad of 45 for the announced earlier this month, showed also that he does not shirk tough selection decisions.
The latest big names to be axed ahead of the opener against South Africa were seasoned No.8 Wycliff Palu and 17 cap inside-centre Christian Leali'ifano. Earlier high-profile casualties included James O'Connor, the wonderboy who was picked at fly-half against the 2013 but failed to hit the heights with the Reds after his walkabout with London Irish and Toulon.
Other notable absentees from the long squad included wing Nick “The Honey Badger” Cummins.  Australian rugby's most colourful character earned a late reprieve after Fijian import Henry Speight had to return home for a funeral, but both wings found themselves out of the running for the team against the Boks. Another casualty was cocaine-bust Rugby League cross-over Karmichael Hunt.
However, of all the long squad omissions the ones that spoke loudest about Cheika's immediate ambitions in the Rugby Championship, and for the World Cup beyond, was a changing-of the-guard in the front row following the axing of Benn Robinson and Ben Alexander, both 72-cap veterans.
It spoke of the influence of the former Pumas hooker Mario Ledesma as the new Wallaby set-piece coach. It spells out that although loose-head Robinson and tight-head Alexander have more international experience than all of their rivals combined, Ledesma believes that the cracks in their scrummaging technique can no longer be papered over.
It's likely that Cheika did not need too much persuasion because he knew that during their front row tenure, despite their hard work around the pitch, the Australian scrum had lost credibility. Cutting the long-serving Wallaby duo was an acknowledgement that however adept Robinson and Alexander were at ducking and diving, and trying to con referees into awarding them penalties, the reality was that by the end of the 2013 Lions tour they had run out of bolt holes.
Cheika knew also that England's win at Twickenham last autumn – a matter of weeks after his appointment – was based squarely on being incapable of resisting the squeeze they mounted at the scrum. Soon afterwards he recruited Ledesma to make urgent repairs aimed at stopping the rot. That scrum overhaul will be the subject of forensic scrutiny by Australia's World Cup pool rivals, England and , with Stuart Lancaster in particular calibrating whether the front five of his pack will still be capable of grinding their Wallaby counterparts into sausage-meat.

Mario Ledesma
Mario Ledesma

Cheika's selection suggests more gristle and grit in Aussie front row mix than there was a year ago. In comes the veteran Queensland Reds tight-head Greg Holmes to challenge Sekope Kepu. In the Super 15 campaign the Reds boasted the most effective scrum among the Australian franchises, with Holmes at its core, and there is clear evidence that he has improved significantly as a scrummager since he set tongues wagging in 2006 by scoring a try against Ireland with a 50 metre burst.
That Holmes touchdown brought inevitable tongue-in-cheek calls for him to resign from the front-row union, but the reality was that it did not take long for him to fall out of favour.  Since winning his 13th cap in 2007 he has not been on the Wallaby roster – until now.
On the other side of the scrum the man in possession is James Slipper. The Reds No.1 is an impressive carrier, but he will face fierce competition from Scott Sio (Brumbies). Respected pundits Down Under consider Sio to be the best scrummaging loose-head Australia can muster, and a combination of him with newly-appointed Wallaby captain Stephen Moore at hooker brings not only solidity, but also the benefits of their familiarity at the Brumbies.
However, whether the starting front-row against South Africa is the expected combination of Slipper, Moore and Kepu, having Sio, Tatafu Polota-Nau and Holmes in reserve should give the Wallabies solid scrum foundations for the first time since the 1999 World Cup. This time, whichever front-row combination Cheika opts for, Australia will be anticipating a good return against the South African set-piece.
A large slab of that confidence will stem from the massive presence of Will Skelton, with the 23 stone (148kg), 6ft 8ins Waratahs lock packing down behind the tight-head, with the specific aim of ensuring that the Australian put-in is solid.
Should those hopes be realised Australia's Rugby Championship and World Cup ambitions will have received a huge shot in the arm, because it will enable Cheika to make the most of his embarrassment of riches in the backs, and the back-row.
The only shortfall is that Skelton's sheer bulk means that he is a difficult man to lift, and therefore is not a regular line-out target. This puts a high on the Wallabies having not only a proven second row line-out target like Rob Simmons, but also having one or more jumpers in the backrow. The two main options are rugged Brumbies blindside Scott Fardy or athletic No.8 Scott Higginbotham, although Dean Mumm's invaluable experience of English conditions after his stint at Exeter could also put him in contention as a line-out winning blindside.
The next big challenge for Cheika, and arguably the most crucial, is arranging the gems he has in the backrow and in the backline – particularly his half-back pairing – so that they can dazzle.
The questions come thick and fast. Could playing his two world-class opensides, David Pocock and Michael Hooper, in tandem as left and right flankers give Australia a winning hand at the breakdown? Only, it seems, if the Wallabies have a No.8 who can win line-outs, which means Cheika opting for Higginbotham or recalling Palu.
Will Skelton
Will Skelton

Then there is the choice to be made at half-back between the NSW Waratahs 9-10 pairing of Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley, or their Queensland Reds counterparts Will Genia and Quade Cooper. Bob Dwyer threw another hat in the ring this week when he championed Matt Giteau as being Australia's best fly-half by a street.
The former Wallaby World Cup-winning coach said that Giteau's ability to play on the advantage line and run straight was showcased spectacularly in Toulon's European Cup final win over . Dywer said he would pair him with the mercurial Genia, while being critical of Phipps for missing his receiver with too many passes.
Whatever half-back permutation Cheika chooses should thrive if the Wallaby pack measures up. So should a backline which combines the flair and athleticism of Israel Folau, Adam-Ashley-Cooper, Matt Toomua, Drew Mitchell and Kurtley Beale with the power, size and physicality of Fijian-born strike runners like Tevita Kurundrani and the Lomu-sized Taqele Naiyaravoro.
Ranged against them will be a South African backline without too many surprises with Willie Le Roux, Bryan Habana, JP Pietersen, young fly-half Handre Pollard and Ruan Pienaar among the familiar faces. Strong-running centre Damien de Allende is expected to deputise for captain Jean de Villiers, who is close to fitness after a remarkably quick recovery from a knee reconstruction.
The front five of the Springbok pack also has an instantly recognisable look about it with Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth and the venerable Victor Matfield in harness. However, there could be new combinations in the backrow where the Lions No.8 Warren Whiteley is likely to come in for the injured Duane Vermeulen, with Oupa Mohoje and Francois Louw on the flanks.
The South African challenge will, as ever, give Australia's physicality fore and aft a thorough examination, and by the end of it Cheika should have a clearer idea which parts of his new Wallaby construct work.

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