Last night's Aussie conference fortunes was an incredible reshuffle in the great unwashed "who should Straya pick for the Lions" speculation game.
Folau let in a try, but apart from that he played like a genius against the Chiefs. George Smith and Lealiifano put themselves firmly on the radar and Jesse Mogg would have to stomp on the selector's door to beat it down any further. Things looking much, much more comforting than last week.
Which leads to its own problems:
1. We now have an embarrassment of riches at 7 in Smith, Gill and Hooper, but who gets drafted in at openside with no Pocock? Presumably Smith because of his experience and match awareness, but I still don't envy Dingo Deans making this decision.
2. To fit all the in-form backs into the squad, some are going to have to be played out of position. Mogg, Barnes and Folau aren't all going to be fullback even though all three are playing well enough in their own right, Quade is still persona non grata with Deans (opening the O'Connor-at-10 farce debate), and with the Lions being extremely clear with declaring a forward-steamroll strategy, you can't help but think that distribution from flyhalf and inside-centre will be crucial if we want to exploit our (well, presumed) mobility advantage. Huge competition on the wings too, considering Ioane is a dead cert and O'Connor, Folau, Mafi and even Mogg worth considering for the other one.
Deans seems to like McCabe at 12 though, and his defence is excellent. Then again, so is Lealiifano's and he distributes and kicks with a lot less hesitation. Then there's Folau again, who is getting exponentially better and translating his league versatility into rugby.
In a perfect world, we'd have Beale at 15, but he probably won't integrate back into the side between now and the first test.
