Telling James Horwill there was no room for him in the Wallabies squad for Saturday’s Rugby Championship opener at ANZ Stadium was about as pleasant for coach Ewen McKenzie as telling Bernard Foley he’d been relegated too.
McKenzie, though, knows making the tough calls is the only way to break New Zealand’s 12-year hold of the Bledisloe Cup.
And he says he’s made no more difficult decisions in his coaching career than overlooking Horwill, his captain of the champion Queensland Reds Super Rugby outfit in 2011 and Australia’s last World Cup skipper to boot.
“I know him pretty well so they’re not easy conversations to have,” McKenzie said after opting for Sam Carter to partner lineout chief Rob Simmons in the second row, with giant lock Will Skelton to come off the bench in an impact role.
“We know what James Horwill can do and he’s a very experienced campaigner so there’d be every reason to include him.
“We looked at all the combinations – six-two benches (of forwards to backs) and all sorts of combinations how we might do it.
“In the end, we’ve come up with the best for this game.”
Foley, the Wallabies’ incumbent, had been favoured to retain the No.10 jumper after booting NSW to an historic Super Rugby final victory over the Crusaders, but McKenzie picked his Waratahs teammate Kurtley Beale instead.
“Bernard’s not out of the team because he’s out of form – at all. It’s just that we’ve got more players than we can squeeze in there,” McKenzie said.
Omitting Tevita Kuridrani after 11 appearances at outside centre since debuting in 2013 was another case in point, with Adam Ashley-Cooper’s career-best form for the Waratahs this season too compelling to ignore.
“One of the worst parts of the job is delivering selection news,” McKenzie said.
“It’s easy telling guys they’re in, but telling guys they’re out … and blind Freddie knew that we wouldn’t be able to fit everyone into the team.
“That’s a good job for Australian rugby, but it’s not such a good job for the coach in terms of delivering the messages.
“But you don’t expect them to be liking that situation. They understand it and you explain it, but Bernard’s still got a role to play.
“Effectively, we’ve reversed the roles. Kurtley was finishing the games against France, he was starting. Just reverse the roles.”
