SYDNEY : There was a time when it seemed like Australia could whistle up a fresh world class playmaker at will but those days are long gone and Wallabies flyhalf stocks are looking threadbare with little more than a year to go until the World Cup.
"We talked about him needing to sharpen up and he's been doing that," coach Dave Rennie told reporters from Argentina. The versatile Reece Hodge will back up from the bench with no place even among the replacements for 22-year-old Lolesio, who started all three tests against England last month. O'Connor was banished from Australian rugby at the end of the 2013 season for off-field indiscretions just as Bernard Foley, who had not been in contention for the Lions series, emerged to make the position his own for five years.