Jeremy Guscott previews the Rugby Championship: Wallabies miss their stars

Michael Hooper is a match-winner, and the new Australian captain could be a huge obstacle to England come the 2015 World Cup. The Wallaby openside is out of the same mould as Richie McCaw, David Pocock, his predecessor as Wallaby skipper, and Neil Back.
He’s taken over from Pocock, who’s had two knee injuries, so effectively that the Australian back row has not been weakened. He’s just like a machine that keeps delivering – he already looks battered like Neil Back, and by the 2015 tournament Hooper could be a real superstar of the game.
Hooper, 24, is that old-fashioned No.7 proving that a guy who is not the biggest can be one of the world’s best. At the moment he outperforms everyone in winning turn-overs at the breakdown, but what makes him such a brilliant 7 is the way he runs like a centre and links with the backs. He could be the player of the World Cup – he has that much ability.
His rate of development is incredible, and in two seasons he already has a lorry load of experience having played 31 Tests.
However, outside Hooper I was not overly impressed by Australia in this summer’s series against the French, despite the whitewash.
The first thing is that France were so appalling it makes it difficult to judge how Australia are developing with Ewen McKenzie as head coach. The Wallabies won by an impressive margin in the first Test, but in the second Test they didn’t play any rugby. I’m assuming that McKenzie shut the gate in that game because they just wanted to close out the series.
Still, it’s pretty sad when a Wallaby side plays as if they’ve never seen a ball before. Part of the reason you expected more was because they made such progress at the back end of 2013, and although they were poor in their autumn series opener against England, in the last game against Wales they were truly superb.
The big change from that game to the series against the French was the absence of Will Genia and Quade Cooper and the introduction of a new half-back pairing of Nic White and Bernard Foley.
White is predominantly a kicking scrum-half who is not particularly exciting to watch and not overly dangerous – but he’s a good strategist in the Brumbies style. Anyone watching the Waratahs play recently would be impressed, and fly-half Foley has been at the heart of that. He’s very sound, but I don’t see stardust, and will need to see more to turn me into a Foley fan.
Foley’s big test, if he keeps his place, will come in the Rugby Championship opener against New Zealand. I like the escapism that players like Genia, Cooper and Kurtley Beale bring. A guy like Beale hates structure and, a bit like James Hook with Wales, they have to be red-hot before they force the arm of national coaches.
I’d love to see an Australian team play with the influence of the playmaker, rather than the coach. Beale is a fantastic, instinctive natural rugby player, and it’s almost a crime we don’t get to see more of him. The Aussies are not short of hugely talented players – it’s just that they don’t always pick them.
The one big exception at the moment is Izzy Folau. This guy is a phenomenon, and it’s hard to believe he’s only been in our game two seasons. I hope he stays in Union, but there’s bound to be a big push to get him back to Rugby League – and if the Australian Rugby Union cannot get the money together after the World Cup then some of their biggest stars will be gone.
Australia’s scrum is not as bad as made out, and their lineout is good – but not great. In the John Eales era it was a real point of strength, and the catch-and-drive is such a good attacking tool because of what you can launch from it, that it needs work.
Which brings us to Will Skelton. You’re not stopping his 6ft 8ins and 21 1/2 stones from 10 yards out, as he showed against the French, so at this stage it’s a question of fitness and getting used to the demands of Test rugby. At that size he can become the best 30 minute impact player in the world, but to have a constant influence on the game like Brodie Retallick, Courtney Lawes and Eben Etzebeth, he will have to get fitter. Second row is hugely influential in Test rugby and, with James Horwill nowhere near his best at the moment, it is an area where Australia have gone missing a bit. Skelton could solve that problem, because in terms of skill level, he’s got it.
At the other end of the size spectrum, so does Matt Giteau.
He has flourished in the Toulon environment, whereas he felt suffocated under the Robbie Deans regime in Australia. On his current club form Giteau would challenge every midfield player McKenzie has, and if the World Cup was played tomorrow he’d deserve to be in the starting line up.
One thing that all coaches, Australian and otherwise, should be aware of is that gifted people in sport need room to breathe. That’s not to say that they should make allowances for people who are destructive, but they should be able to put up with a maverick or two.
*This article was published in The Rugby Paper on July 20