The Extermination of the Reds is Almost Complete

Waratahs domination and Reds demoralisation are as important to each other as peanut-butter is to honey (if you haven't tried this on toast then do yourself a favour). It is no coincidence that while the Waratahs are sailing smoothly on calm waters, the Reds are swamped by heavy seas and only some ferocious bailing is keeping them afloat. This is great news for the Wallabies who struggled for years under the weighty burden of too many Reds in the squad (and you thought it was all Robbie Deans' fault).

The Wallabies are now down to only two Queenslanders in the starting XV and one more on the bench. And none of those should consider themselves safe.

Rob Simmons has Will Skelton looking over his shoulder (Skelton looks over everyone’s shoulder), James Slipper is keeping Benn Robinson’s seat warm and James Horwill is only on the bench out of tokenism and Ewen McKenzie’s desire to keep the Queensland press off his back (remember Ewen McKenzie is a New South Welshman). A few more wins in succession for the Wallabies and even that won't be required.

And Quade Cooper wouldn’t have been selected either if the dumping of Will Genia is any guide.

The even better news is that the three tests coming up against France are a fait accompli (har). France haven't defeated Australia in Australia since 1990, indeed they've only won 4 out of the last 18 against the Wallabies.

So there are plenty of opportunities to keep Genia and all those other out of form Queenslanders out of the team. It's the best thing for the Wallabies and Ewen MacKenzie knows it.

Now if only those Brumbies can be pushed aside - plenty of Super Rugby, Bledisloe and Rugby Championship to take care of that.

Comments

DefB said…
I used to think peanut butter and honey was the dogs bollocks, until I tried peanut butter and nutella...