News

Deans wants full-strength ABs

June 29 2009

Australia coach Robbie Deans is oddly hoping All Black duo Richie McCaw and Dan Carter will be fit to take on his Wallabies during the Tri-Nations.

The southern hemisphere spectacle is set to begin on July 18 when Australia collides with an out-of-form New Zealand side, which has been dogged by injuries of late.

Deans, in contrast, will name a pretty much full-strength 2009 squad this Thursday, but admits both the Kiwis and the tournament requires the class of his currently injured former students.

"It would be great to play the All Blacks with those blokes there," Deans said, speaking to Rugby Heaven.

"Players love to play the best. I'd imagine that Richie will return pretty soon and I'm sure we will see Dan before the Tri-Nations is out, which will be great for rugby."

The Wallabies have posted an unbeaten record of four from four over recent weeks, with wins against the Baa-baas, Italy (two) and France acting as an ideal warm-up ahead of their Auckland opener.

But while they have failed to recapture the scintillating rugby that saw them cruise past an out-of-sorts Barbarians, Australia will surely head into their first fixture full of confidence.

Belief that they can claim away victories will be vital to their tournament charge though, and with having not won in New Zealand since 2001, Deans hopes starting off with this scheduled Test will be the perfect opportunity to change their fortunes.

"We go into the deep end, which will be a good focal point for us," Deans said.

"We came up well short there last year and I would envisage that the All Blacks will present themselves in exactly the same way. The key thing is to present yourself well and we didn't do that last year."

In his own camp, flank Rocky Elsom seems unlikely to be fully fit for Auckland and also the Cape Town fixture, but should return in time to face the Kiwis in Sydney's on August 22.

"Rocky is not progressing the way he would like, nor we would like," Deans explained.

"It's a time thing. It's a matter of when. It's proving more frustrating than all parties would like. We have two games in about a month and a half. So I would like to think he would be good to go by the end of that."