With the Rugby Championship once again securely in New Zealand's possession and as we come to the close of the domestic season, it's probably a good time to reflect on 2016 and the moments that made the season and the moments that I'm trying to forget. There were the losses to England – which nobody really saw coming – and the despair of that first loss in Sydney to New Zealand. Yet there have been highlights as well.
Our second-tier competition, the National Rugby Championship, needs some serious tweaking. Why? Because we are playing a game that has no relevance to what we want to achieve on the international stage.
If you ask the Wallabies players about their performances, mediocre is a word that could come to mind, but there is a difference in mediocre performances and accepting mediocrity. That's just not in their DNA.
Should we take the hit, give younger players their chance and wear the pain of losing in order to grow, or do we keep going back to our overseas exports?
All you ask for in a game is for an even playing field; a fair rub of the green so both teams can have a fair crack.
When Matt Giteau hobbled off the field in the opening Bledisloe Cup clash, the whole crowd were thinking the same thing: please don't let it end like that.
There have been plenty of memorable moments at the Rio Olympic Games, and you don't have to be a rugby supporter to have been swept up in the euphoria of the Australian women's sevens team picking up a gold medal.
Here is my team, with a few changes from the June Test series against England, for Saturday's Bledisloe Cup opener at the Olympic Stadium.
Do we need to once again address a universal season to align the stars and rid the schedule of inconsistencies?
Most of our boys will have had a four-week mid-season "pre-season" to get ready for the All Blacks and an opening game of the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney that really is all-or-nothing for the Wallabies.
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