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Europe-bound Wallabies overlooked in Michael Cheika's June Test squad

Tom Decent
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Michael Cheika insists players who are making their way offshore can still be picked for the Wallabies but the non-selection of Scott Fardy, Rob Horne and Will Skelton is a strong indication they are on the outer for now. 

All three players have signed contracts to play in Europe next season; a move they know not only puts their Wallabies aspirations in jeopardy but almost certainly curtails any chance of representing Australia at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. 

Cheika has previously come out and said future moves would have no bearing on current selections but the decision to pick Ned Hanigan and Jack Dempsey – both with less than a season of Super Rugby under their belt – ahead of Fardy, who has been in excellent form, is rather telling. 

"Our position is more like ... if we thought we were going to pick one of those guys in the starting team, then yes we'll bring them in," Cheika said. "But around the squad as a whole, there is a chance to develop some other younger guys who we think will be here in 2018 and 2019 who we think will benefit from being around the squad and maybe get some game-time."

Cheika has given his assurance that if there were to be an injury or slump in form in one of the players he had originally picked, a member of the European-bound brigade could be called back in. 

"If at any stage during the series we felt that they would be selections in the starting team we could go back to them," Cheika said. "There's no ruling of anyone out because they're doing anything." 

Cheika admitted the hardest decisions he had to make was leaving out the likes of Fardy, Horne and even the retiring Dean Mumm, who was also brushed. 

"The established players like Fardy, Rob Horne, Simmons, Skelton, Mumm; they were difficult decisions to leave those guys out," Cheika said. "Those guys are not out of the picture. I'll talk to the lads and explain some of my thought around that and go from there."

Luke Morahan, who will leave Western Force at the end of the season to join Bristol, was also overlooked. 

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