For a squad with 16 new faces and a completely new coaching staff, being locked in quarantine in New Zealand is unlikely how Dave Rennie would have foreseen his first days with the Wallabies.
But for a team that became increasingly divided in recent years, it could well prove to be the case that COVID-19 is the Wallabies’ unexpected weapon over the months and years to come under Rennie’s watch.
“This Covid thing has probably been a blessing in disguise for us, where we can really gel and get a real understanding of what the coaches want us to do,” admitted Wallabies forward Lukhan Salakaia-Loto.
On Tuesday, Wallabies veteran Matt To'omua said quarantine had forced the squad to block out the external and focus solely on their preparations ahead of the Test.
"Figuratively and literally we’re in a bubble. Often you’re shielded from the public in that sense and the noise of the game, but here even more so because we’re in the hotel. We go to training and then we come back to the hotel. It’s an odd feeling. It allows you to focus on the game a lot more," To'omua said.
While the Wallabies’ culture under Michael Cheika was a strength early on in his tenure – it helped them reach the 2015 World Cup final – the fallout from Israel Folau’s social media activity over the past two years heightened tensions that had been bubbling away already within camp.
Indeed, Rugby Australia’s review into the Wallabies’ quarter-final exit at last year’s World Cup found that culture was one of the squad’s major shortcomings.
But ever since the Wallabies came together last month in the Hunter Valley, “culture” has been the buzz word on the tip of players’ tongues.
On Wednesday, that theme continued as Salakaia-Loto revealed the major differences in life under Rennie.
“He’s done really well in building the culture and getting the boys to understand different cultures because we all come from different places, we’re such a multicultural group,” he said.
“Maybe in the past we haven’t really understood one another as well as we should have, so he’s really worked hard in getting this group to bond and understand each other and make it a level playing field where everyone can speak up and grow and bounce off each other and learn from each other.”
Whether that new-found love for one another translates onto the pitch remains to be seen, but the Wallabies’ hardman believes that they are back on track under the New Zealand coach.
“The tighter you are off the park you’re going to work harder for each other, and the effort we’re going to put on for each other on the field’s going to be much stronger as well,” Salakaia-Loto said.
“Off the field is such an important part in results and gelling.
“At the end of the day we’ve still got to go out there and perform, but it’s also good to be so close within only a couple of weeks. I think it’s good for signs for us.”
It’s a theme that former World Cup-winning All Blacks fly-half, Aaron Cruden, said made the Chiefs so successful under Rennie.
“I just think with Rens, he invests so much of his time into providing a culture, a healthy culture in his teams,” Cruden told RUGBY.com.au in a wide-ranging interview on the eve of the opening Bledisloe Cup Test.
“He commits to the culture of the team; he likes to try and understand the background and the area or the people that he will be representing while coaching certain teams.
“Rens will invest in developing a strong culture because he believes, ultimately, that’s half the job done.”
Salakaia-Loto is expected to be named in the starting side when Rennie announces his first Wallabies team on Friday.
But the mystery surrounding the makeup of the team continued on Wednesday when the 24-year-old said he had been rotating between the second-row and side of the scrum.
“No, we’ve got no idea (of the team),” the 21-Test forward said.
“But I’m sure that news isn’t too far away as we’re only a few days out.
“I’ve been training in both roles as per usual in case I’m needed in either of them. I’ve been transitioning between both and swapping in with different guys.
“We’re still training hard and everyone’s just trying to nail down the knowledge, so at the moment it’s a bit of both and we’ll find out in the coming days where it all stands.”
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