Key Wallabies to be rested during Super Rugby season

According to Fox Sports, Rugby Australia will follow the lead of New Zealand next year, with key Wallabies being rested throughout the Super Rugby season to keep them fresh for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

In a turning point for Australian rugby, foxsports.com.au has revealed that a handshake agreement has been struck between RA and the four Australian Super Rugby franchises.

The agreement in principle was reached during last month’s national high-performance summit in Sydney, with the details still being finalised.

“What we’ve committed to is developing individual — almost like periodised plans — for our top players,” RA’s high-performance manager Ben Whitaker said.

“That will be a process formed between national team staff and the respective Super staff of the player, and that will be the full gamut of things around programming, load management, training and playing etc.

“I don’t know if it will be exactly the same or copying New Zealand, but we will certainly be managing the individual players together and that will incorporate periods of rest, but it won’t be totally dictated by the Wallabies or Australia, Super Rugby will be involved in our planning.”

The historic agreement means there will be no repeat of the awkward standoff that occurred between the Brumbies and Wallabies earlier this year.

The Brumbies where asked by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika to rest the likes of David Pocock, Scott Sio and Allan Alaalatoa on the eve of their must-win clash against the Sunwolves but Dan McKellar's men were facing the prospect of missing the finals for the first time since 2012 and ultimately McKellar rejected Cheika’s plea.

Whitaker said that good had come from it.

“Every time you’re involved a situation like that, things like communication, your strategy, your plans, your systems all come under scrutiny and often that’s the best thing that can happen because you learn from that and you know what needs to be done so it’s far more effective,” Whitaker said.

“And whilst that was an interesting, testing time for a lot of different reasons, I think everyone goes ‘getting through that we’ve got a better understanding of how we can approach that situation in the future.’

“And again, it’s probably a glass half full view of that, no one in our environment is shy of having a robust discussion and they need to be a part of what we’re doing.

“I’ve been around for a while now, I think in the past if you don’t get the result you wanted you lose and therefore you don’t rate what happened or the outcome.

“Whereas I think we’re a bit more mature in the plan that we’re running (now) and we can see that you need to look at it to support, in this case, national and Super endeavours.”