Cheika surprises by dropping ball with White decision

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika's big selection doozy was omitting slippery halfback Nic White from his squad. Photo / Getty Images

You can't accuse Michael Cheika of going under the radar in his (so far) short time as Wallaby rugby coach.

He appeals as the epitome of the coach who makes every tackle, kicks every ball and leaps in all the lineouts. In short, a man with passion for, and love of, his game. He's had one or two bustups with referees from his Waratahs days but having overseen Australia's richly deserved win over the All Blacks in Sydney this month, following the snatching of an improbable last-moment win over South Africa, and the subsequent Rugby Championship victory, his stock is seriously high.

However in naming his World Cup squad of 31 yesterday, Cheika appears to have dropped into muppet mode.

Leaving out former captain James Horwill is one thing. Cheika has opted for Rob Simmons, lumbering Will Skelton, Dean Mumm and Kane Douglas as his locks. All younger men than the 2011 cup skipper and it's not as if Horwill simply demanded his inclusion by dint of performance.

No, Cheika's big doozy was omitting slippery halfback Nic White from his squad. This is the same Nic White whose appearance off the bench against the All Blacks in Sydney was as effective a replacement performance as you'll have seen in many a day.

White started off his 16-minute cameo by clouting over a penalty from near halfway. His energy and verve kept Wallaby spirits high and he produced the coup de grace, sliding around the side of a ruck, between two defenders and across for the winning try nine minutes from the end.

It may be White is seen as a sharper weapon in short bursts rather than a starting No9 but Cheika has simply rubbed him out of the World Cup. You'd wager that in the aftermath of the Sydney triumph, White would have quietly thought he'd effectively packed his bags for Britain. Strange days. In time, of course, it may be that his two choices, the ordinary Nick Phipps, and his short fuse, and brilliant but erratic veteran Will Genia prove a masterstroke. Try telling that to White right now.

"There's some happy people and some very disappointed people," Cheika said of his selection. It was ever thus.

White might also look about the squad named yesterday and see the name Cooper and figure something was out of whack. Quade Cooper doesn't do pressure cookers particularly well. England at Twickenham? Australia at England's HQ as well, then perhaps South Africa in a quarter-final at the same venue?

Coaches and clangers go hand in hand, or perhaps that should be selectors and stuff-ups are restless bedmates.

Australia's cricket selectors made a hash of their team for the fourth, and as it proved decisive, Ashes test at Trent Bridge last week. They picked a Marsh, unfortunately not the right one. Shaun, the batsman, was picked, and flopped - although he wasn't the Lone Ranger in that as the Aussies tumbled to 60 all out in the first innings - while Mitchell the allrounder, who would have provided balance to the side and helped the bowling operation, was not. Just dumb.

In 1976, All Blacks coach JJ Stewart, a clever and lateral thinker on the game - he once espoused the idea of allowing the ball to be passed forward to teammates, a la basketball, as an innovation worth pursuing - chose Otago's first five-eighth Duncan Robertson out of the blue at fullback in the first test against South Africa. Cue shock, horror. It didn't work. Then again, his chosen fullbacks for the tour were ponderous Laurie Mains, and the erratic Kit Fawcett, forever remembered for a line about scoring more off the field than on it.

Selection is often a roll of the dice. The coach has his ideas, has the players in mind to put his plans into place. Sometimes he - or she - gets it right and takes the plaudits.

At other times the best laid plans come to nought. Whether Cheika is seen as a mope or a magician will be known in about eight weeks.