The shackles are off with new Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie encouraging his charges to “have a go” and reprise Australia’s glory days of running rugby.
The McKenzie reign is underway with the new-era Wallabies assembling in Sydney on Monday and vowing to get straight down to the business of regaining the Bledisloe Cup.
The Wallabies take on the All Blacks in the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship opener at ANZ Stadium on Saturday week and, although McKenzie isn’t forecasting wholesale changes to the Test side for his first match in charge, he is promising an innovative game plan to try to conquer the world champions.
“We’re certainly not going to deny the players the opportunity to have a go,” McKenzie said.
“People are expected to use their skill and, if they can create an opportunity, then go for it. It’s not about limiting people by structure.”
McKenzie won’t be giving his entire squad a free licence to thrill but said players like enigmatic five-eighth Quade Cooper, who is almost certain to return from his 11-month Test exile under Robbie Deans, will have the freedom to apply the tricks they practise on the training paddock.
“You don’t want to dampen the whole thing and say it’s a Test match, you can’t do anything – just kick to corners and let’s keep it zero to zero,” he said.
“If you see an opportunity, then you’ve got to be able to take it.
“And that’s the Australian thing. You’ve got to have a bit of a go.”
While Cooper is odds-on to be reinstated, McKenzie said he wouldn’t be making radical changes to the Wallabies’ starting XV.
But he is hoping to catch the All Blacks out with a mix of panache and unpredictability.
“You arrive at this time and it’s not a matter of chucking everything out the window,” he said.
“You have to accept that there were things going on that were quite good and world-class, so we’ll only be interested in changing things where we think we can get a benefit, I guess, from a base game.
“Then we’ll look at tactically where are the opportunities against the All Blacks.”
McKenzie will trim his 40-man training squad back to 30 players on Friday and on Monday he finalised his coaching team through to the 2015 Rugby World Cup with the addition of Queensland’s attack coach Jim McKay.
McKay, who has worked with McKenzie at the Reds for the past four seasons, will keep the same role for the Wallabies as part of a four-man coaching team.
The former Randwick winger will be one of three assistant coaches, with Nick Scrivener retaining his job as defence mentor and Andrew Blades staying in control of set-piece coaching.
Deposed head coach Robbie Deans had the responsibilities for Australia’s backline throughout his five-and-a-half-season stint, while coaching coordinator Tony McGahan left his national team post last month to take charge of the Melbourne Rebels.
“We’ve got a very good mix of the technical principles and also the attitudinal bit that you need and certainly some of the innovation that is synonymous with Wallaby rugby,” McKenzie said.