Cheika unfazed by selection 'risk'; Planet Rugby

Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika isn't overly concerned about taking only two hookers and two scrum-halves to the World Cup.

Australia captain Stephen Moore and Tatafu Polota-Nau are the two hookers named in Australia's 31-man squad, while Matt Giteau is expected to cover at scrum-half behind Nick Phipps and Will Genia.

Cheika acknowledged that an injury in either of those positions would stretch the squad somewhat but felt confident enough in the cover available to make the call.

"I suppose you could always say there is a bit of a risk," Cheika said.

"We feel we've got enough back-up that can cover in the short-team situation and we feel we've got excellent cover outside of the squad with both (hooker) James Hanson and Nic White in case we do get an injury."

Cheika also added that despite the Wallabies chopping and changing their side frequently during the Rugby Championship, a long-term selection plan had always been in place since last November.

"Because we have been changing players around, there is a bit of a thought that we don't know who should be in the team," Cheika said.

"But I can assure you that we have been working off a plan that we have had since we came back from the November tour and I'm sticking to that plan.

"It's been something that is working for us. We have improved in our depth and in a lot of the areas that we needed to improve on.

"We have still got improvement to make and we have still got time to make that improvement."

Of course finalising the squad meant some tough phone calls, with scrum-half White and James Horwill, Australia's captain at the last World Cup, being the biggest casualties.

Cheika explained his decision regarding Horwill and admitted that it had been a "tough" phone call.

"He really played himself into contention," said Cheika.

"Maybe he was a bit further away at the start of the Rugby Championship but the balance of the team that we wanted required just the two line-out orientated locks and we have that.

"What it (Horwill's omission) allowed me to do was have two teams that we can train accordingly and turn around according to the draw for the first part of the tournament.

"I felt that was the right balance for what we are going to do."

 Supports my theory that coaches that know they don't quite measure up will try something different with their selections. A little more risk to try and close the gap.
Then of course there is the injury situation and political interference that the Boks face. Meyer really has a tough roe to hoe. We will see if he takes some gambles.
Hansen faces a different situation as ABs are no.1. He may take some risks to try & stay ahead of the pack, e.g. Mills-Skudder, one less lock & one more backrower but I doubt he will roll the dice as much as other coaches.

 According to Mario Ledesma, the wallie assistant coach, Scott Sio is the back-up for the hooker position.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3555_73636,00.html

If he can play at hooker there's no very big risk in taking only 2 specialists.

ABF: To me it's a calculated risk, i.e. being able to select a player for another position as the plus side & being willing to tolerate a drop in performance in hooker (Sio) to get this advantage. If Sio can do a decent job he can fill the spot until a real hooker is called up if need be then Cheika wins the gamble. If in the knock out stages Moore get's injured can Sio do the job? If not Cheika loses his gamble.

 Why take a makeshift hooker ?  Its one of the positions that is critical to success especialy in the NH surely ?Moore and Toffy Now are both prone to breakage too.

 JW,

yeah, it's a calculated risk. Very often the third hooker or scrumie, which are the most specialized positions, don't even play in the whole tournament. Taking only 2 and filling their space with the 6th backrower or the 5th outside back gives a lot more options to the coach, can give rest to some players,....
The problem and the risk lies when the first choice (Moore) gets an injury which is not tournament-ending (when the injury is tournament ending he can be replaced with another hooker from outside the 31-squad and problem solved). But when is not and the coach wants to keep his first choice player for the lasts and most important games, he cannot replace him because once a player is replaced he's out of the tournament, the replacement cannot be reversed.
In these cases, the second choice specialist player (Polota-Nau) has to start one or some games having the not-specialized back up (Sio) on the bench. This is not very risky unless Polota-Nau gets an early injury, in which case Sio would have to play for most of the game. But the posibilities of this to happen are very remote and therefore is a calculated risk.
Usually an injury in the knock-out stages is tournament-ending in which case the player is replaced.

When the wallies anounced their squad with only 2 hookers I said it was very risky because I didn't know that Sio could cover it.
If you have just the 2 specialists and no more back-up, you risk to lose your first choice player for a minor injury for the rest of the tournament because you have to replace him, you cannot begin a game with only 1 hooker.

Relax boys, everything is gonna be fine.