Wrong tour offers Moore frustration

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UNDER normal circumstances, Stephen Moore would be delighted to test his scrummaging prowess against the powerhouse packs from the pampas, but not when his tour of Argentina comes at the expense of a Wallabies tour of Europe.

In one of their most stunning decisions of the year, Australia’s selectors have stood down the 22-year-old Queensland hooker from the Wallabies’ November tour to France, England, Ireland and Wales. The campaign has widely been sold as a developmental tour targeting emerging young talent earmarked for the 2007 World Cup.

Instead, Moore will depart next week for the Reds’ four-match tour of Argentina, on which he admittedly can expect more game time than he would have received from Wallabies coach Eddie Jones in Europe. And after a year in which he has started just seven Super 12 games and two club matches and logged just 40 minutes of rugby over his five-Test international career, there is no doubt game time is what the hugely talented hooker needs more than anything.

“Steve will play in at least two of our games on tour,” Reds coach Jeff Miller confirmed yesterday. “But while I’m delighted Queensland will have use of him on tour, I am very disappointed that he is not going away with the Wallabies.

“I don’t think he has done anything to deserve not to go. His potential is unlimited. He can become one of our greatest hookers but for that to happen he just needs to play football. This was the time to give him a starting role. I know the Wallabies are under pressure to win games overseas but if we’re looking for new young players coming through, now was the time to give Steve his chance.”

With the Wallabies having lost their past five Tests and soon to meet France in the bearpit at Marseille and England at Twickenham at the start of their tour, the urgent need to begin experimenting with new talent clearly has been outweighed by the even more pressing need to arrest the worst slide of the past 36 years.

The ugly run of recent defeats may have cost Moore his touring position.

Under less precarious circumstances, the selectors might have been inclined to choose one experienced veteran - Brendan Cannon in the absence of Jeremy Paul, who has been given the summer off to rebuild after a persistent run of injuries - and two young tyros, Moore and Australian under-21 hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau.

But with old heads sorely needed, Waratahs hooker Adam Freier looks certain to be named in the touring party, either in the main Wallabies body or as one of the eight players earmarked just for the Australia A game against the French Barbarians in Bordeaux on November 1. The 113kg Polota-Nau has nudged ahead of 112kg Moore in the race to be the “next big thing” in the Australian front row.

Moore must be feeling a little like Grant Hackett did when he won the first major international title of his career, the 400m freestyle at the 1997 Pan Pacs in Fukuoka. Even as the then 17-year-old was stepping on to the top rung of the dais, he already was looking over his shoulder at the 15-year-old waiting to receive the silver medal, one Ian Thorpe.

Polota-Nau is two years younger than Moore but if it is generational change the Australian selectors are seeking, they might well pass over the Queenslander and place their money on the brilliant young Waratah who yesterday was named as one of three finalists for the International Rugby Board’s under-21 Player of the Year.

Moore, to his credit, is not allowing the first setback of his career to unsettle him. “Obviously I’m disappointed not to be going away with the Wallabies but I’m looking forward to the Queensland tour and the chance to try out a few new things I’ve learnt from Alex Evans (the Reds’ forwards coach),” Moore said.