‘Spots are available’: The fierce competition driving the Wallabies ahead of French Test series

We’re a fortnight out from the first rugby Test of the season, and the pressure is starting to ramp up for the Wallabies squad currently in camp on the Gold Coast.

The good news is that pressure is producing healthy competition for spots. The even better news is plenty of positions are a long way from being decided.

Wallabies assistant coach Scott Wisemantel gave some interesting insights into this competition this week, outlining just how fluid the discussions around selection are among Dave Rennie and his coaching team.

“Every day it’s changing, because at the end of every training day we pick a gold, silver and bronze as far as our best three on the ground,” Wisemantel said from the squad’s training base at Sanctuary Cove.

“It’s been quite diverse, our best three. It’s good, we’re actually seeing competition, fierce competition here at the moment.

“Spots are available.”

Wisemantel has picked and re-picked his side several times since arriving into camp, and while all coaches naturally have a team in mind for the first match of a series, he admits he has enjoyed having his thinking challenged.

“Do we have a blueprint in mind? Probably,” he said.

“Is it set in stone? No.”

The beauty of a simple daily ratings system, Wisemantel says, is that while it is an obvious motivator and driver for the playing group, it is also pressuring the coaches’ pre-conceptions about certain players.

“If the same name keeps coming up when you have a selection meeting, you have to play devil’s advocate.

“So, if someone says someone’s a shoo-in and then all of a sudden you’ve got a person who’s been on the podium every day, well you go, ‘Hang on, how does this work? Are we rewarding mediocrity or are we rewarding efforts on the training pitch?’

“It’s a good debate.”

Wisemantel has spent the best part of two decades coaching in the northern hemisphere, including stints in Japan and most recently as England coach Eddie Jones’s right-hand man. But in between, he also enjoyed a lengthy tenure coaching in France.

It was immediately hard to argue with his perspective when he began rubbishing claim Les Bleus were sending a third-string team to Australia, despite 22 of their 42-man squad being uncapped.

“It’s an exciting team. Very good team,” Wisemantel said of the French squad.

Much has been made of the missing contingent, including superstar halves pairing Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, who will instead take a well-earned break after their Toulouse side faces La Rochelle in the Top 14 final this weekend.

The Wallabies attack coach says he is more worried about the exciting young French crop coming our way.

“These kids … for instance in 2019 everyone raved about our young kids (the Junior Wallabies who lost the Under-20s World Championship final to France) … we’ve got three of them from 2019 in our squad, and they’ve got six. So, it’s game on. We’ve got young kids, they’ve got young kids.

“They’re a bloody good team.”

The Wallabies squad has been working hard over its first week in camp, with Wisemantel admitting “they’ve been bloody long days”.

Senior players and seasoned veterans alike have spoken of some of the hardest, most intense training they have experienced in a national camp.

But the expectation is that the hard work will pay off, especially after the Australian sides were generally found to be off the pace over the five weeks of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman.

Regardless, the goal for the three-Test series with the French is clear for the Wallabies.

“I think winning, for a start. I think for Australian rugby, we need to win,” Wisemantel said.

“As a coaching staff, we’re under no illusions there, there’s pressure. There’s always pressure when it’s Test match rugby.

“But apart from winning, we actually want blokes who are selected, we’d like to grow our base. So, if there are some debutants in there, some young blokes, we need to equip them ready for Test match rugby so there’s greater competition into the next two years.”