KEY POINTS:
Shift over Pope Benedict XVI - centre stage in Sydney now belongs to Robert Maxwell Deans.
Divine intervention has been a theme in this city for the past week, a notion which is also making a leap of faith into the rugby arena where Deans has been given the job of revitalising the Wallabies.
Anointed by the Australian Rugby Union, Deans has delivered four straight wins from the Wallabies this season with his biggest challenge this Saturday when his side hosts the All Blacks to start a quadruple Bledisloe Cup series.
While Sydney has dwelled on the tsunami of faith and joy the Pope brought to week-long celebrations in the city by the sea, for those who gather their inspiration from the sporting fields, Homebush Stadium is the venue this Saturday. Deans will be there while the curiosity from the All Black camp is whether injured skipper Richie McCaw will be risked for this opening challenge against the Wallabies and his old coach.
The answer will come today with the naming of the All Blacks squad, one which will have some changes after their narrow defeat against the Boks in Dunedin. Seasoned prop Greg Somerville will return, so too Brad Thorn, while the loosies will be rejigged.
But the question is how radical the selectors will be, or how desperate they are to reinstall McCaw after he badly damaged his ankle a month ago against England. The diagnosis then was a six-week layoff with all sorts of warnings about not rushing back. The sole test in South Africa on August 17 was identified as a likely return date.
Forwards coach Steve Hansen emphasised the need for caution about hurrying McCaw's comeback when he was quizzed on the captain's progress after the loss against the Boks in Dunedin just over a week ago.
Now that he has recovered full fitness after a calf injury, openside specialist Daniel Braid has been brought into the squad and, if chosen, will break a test drought which stretches back to the 2003 World Cup.
That conjecture received a caution light yesterday when McCaw fronted for training in Wellington where it was reported he ran freely though he was not involved in any contact work or scrummaging drills.
Whether that translates into an early test recall will be revealed today when coach Graham Henry names his opening Bledisloe Cup choice.
While the All Blacks would clearly welcome their skipper back, they will also be cautious as a recurrence of his injury will remove McCaw from the rest of the Tri-Nations series. It may be far more prudent to see how he survives a week of full training to see whether he can start the second Bledisloe at Eden Park next weekend.
For Saturday's Bledisloe Cup opener in Sydney, Rodney So'oialo is expected to return to the base of the scrum with Braid or McCaw on the openside again to compete with the specialist roving skills of George Smith or Phil Waugh.
