Former Test captain Phil Waugh is backing the Wallabies to end one of the most tumultuous weeks in Australian rugby history with an improbable backs-to-the-wall Bledisloe Cup triumph over the All Blacks.
Saturday night’s on-field match-up between the fierce trans-Tasman rivals in Brisbane has become almost lost in the Kurtley Beale saga and Waugh is particularly disappointed about the whole affair overshadowing Adam Ashley-Cooper’s 100th Test appearance.
Waugh, though, believes Ashley-Cooper’s milestone may actually galvanise the Wallabies and spark a most unlikely first victory over the world champions in three years.
“It’s obviously a huge achievement for anyone in world rugby to play 100 Tests so it’s disappointing that the gloss is being taken from that and all the attention is centred on the saga in the background,” Waugh told AAP.
“In saying that, in a lot of ways, certainly internally with the players, they’d be focusing very much on that.
“Adam Ashley-Cooper is obviously a very well respected member of the team so perhaps all the guys are rallying around him really trying to make it a very special night for him.”
Waugh believes the bitter fallout from Beale’s in-flight confrontation with ex-Wallabies staffer Di Patston, who has since resigned citing stress, and the subsequent leaking of lewd text messages from the playmaker to teammates about Patston would ordinarily derail any team.
“If it wasn’t such a huge occasion, in the fact that it is Swoop’s 100th, perhaps the players would have got caught up a bit more with what’s going on in the background,” he said.
“But these type of special occasions tend to bring players a lot tighter and closer together, so I actually give them a good chance of the upset that probably no-one’s predicting or expecting.”
Waugh has backed Beale over the issue that has rocked and divided key players in Australian rugby.
Beale faces a code of conduct hearing next week which could end his career in Australia.
Waugh says it would be a huge blow to lose Beale.
“All I do know is that Kurtley’s obviously made a couple of mistakes there but, in saying that, Kurtley was absolutely outstanding for the Waratahs this year.
“And, if you can get him in the right head space and right team environment and right culture, he can be a leading player in world rugby.
“You can’t overlook the fact that he’s a world-standard player in his own right and it’s certainly the responsibility of whoever is leading an environment to get the best out of him.
“You saw the Waratahs get the best out of him this year and it’s important the Wallabies do the same.”
The Waratahs’ Super Rugby-winning coach Michael Cheika on Wednesday distanced himself from talk the ARU had already sounded him out, maintaining he had not been approached by anyone.
With Wallabies and Waratahs skipper Michael Hooper coming under fire for publicly supporting Beale, it also emerged on Wednesday that former Test captain Stirling Mortlock had reached out to Hooper.
At just 22, Hooper is Australia’s youngest captain in more than 50 years and Mortlock endured a similarly difficult situation as Wallabies captain before the ARU tore up Lote Tuqiri’s contract in 2009 for breaching behavioural protocols.
