Waratahs coach Rob Penney says Karmichael Hunt should not be struck from Wallabies conversations as a new Test era begins.
Hunt, 33, has been consistent for the Waratahs in Super Rugby AU since returning from a hamstring injury but his name has not often been mentioned
The utility back won a handful of Wallabies caps in 2017 while playing at the Reds, but a drug-related suspension and a year in club rugby set him back.
Australia's no. 12 is an intriguing selection , with Matt To'omua openly keen to retain his flyhalf spot while incumbent inside centre Samu Kerevi is playing in Japan.
Injuries have hampered Hunt in recent years and his age might count against him as the Wallabies enter a new era, but Penney said the veteran still had plenty of value.
"Karmichael is an absolute warrior," he said.
"What you get from Karmichael on game day is, you get 17 years worth of professional experience across a large spectrum of sports.
"(He's) certainly capable of playing at that level still. Some people might look at his age profile and might say, given that, are we better to look at the future and look towards the World Cup, which you'd probably say Karmichael might not be around at that point.
"If you put an Australian jersey on the man, he would just give you everything as he does for us. The boys love playing with him because of that.
"He just needs to be well-managed, people need to look after him and because of that history and the profile he's got but if he gets to game day and he's excited about it, as you saw last week, I'm not sure if Hunter Paisami saw it coming or not, but wow.
"He's still got a bit of that in him."
Hunt's value versus his age is a dilemma Penney has to finalise in his own mind, too, with the centre off-contract and yet to ink a new deal for 2021, despite openly declaring his desire to stay in NSW.
For the Waratahs, the more immediate focus is winning back-to-back matches for the first time since February 2019.
Penney said there was a "tightrope" to walk when it came to managing the six-day turnaround from a 45-12 win over the Reds.
"It's a bit of a tightrope you walk," he said.
"You want to keep people grounded but keep the confidence there, so it's just one of those, the arts of coaching.
"Everyone's an individual as well so you treat some people slightly differently than others and they're all men, they're intelligent, they're very aware of the situation so they're not school children, they don't need to be batted about and say, 'you must do this or must do that' and they've also got a lot of pride.
"So you tap into all those elements of their desire to do well as an individual and their desire to be a really good team collectively and to do that you need to prepare well and every week's a new battle.
"All you can focus on is making sure you perform as well as you can minute by minute and take care of what you need to take care of at that time and place.
"So, tap into a lot of those emotional components as much as we can and try to keep the confidence cup full."
Penney has tweaked his forwards for the clash with Tetera Faulkner replacing Harry Johnson-Holmes and Ned Hanigan shifting to the bench as the Waratahs look to manage their workloads.
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Robbie Abel also returns to the side after personal leave, which Penney revealed was granted for the rake to be able to supplement his income with alternative work.
"He's a quality player with a vast degree of experience at this level," he said.
"It's been a tumultuous time for poor Robbie.
"We said earlier on that this COVID thing has just wreaked havoc across all the organisations I know and we're no different.
"He was allowed some leave time for personal reasons around getting some work, getting some extra income and so forth for his family but we reached a point where we needed him back."
Australia's professional players are still on a 30 per cent pay cut until September 30 after COVID cost-cutting forced all parts of rugby to take a hit.
The retirement of Damien Fitzpatrick left the Waratahs a hooker down and new addition Dave Porecki has been battling an injury since linking up with the side from England.
NSW recently released rookie rake Joe Cotton to play club rugby, leaving them with a gap in their Super Rugby squad.
Captain Rob Simmons has been named to play after withdrawing late last week before their round six game due to a rib injury, Penney rating him a stronger chance to play this weekend.
The Waratahs take on the Force at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday August 14, kicking off at 7:05pm AEST, LIVE on Foxtel, Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports. Buy tickets here. Buy a Kayo subscription here.
