Rotation policy has gotten a lot of stick from critics in OZ, but I reckon it's a good policy and they should increase it, rather than decrease it, during the remainder of the VB series. If we miss the finals so what. At the risk of cheapening these matches, this is all about building a strong squad of 20+ players who could seriously challenge for places in 2007. I feel we have the strongest domestic competition in the world and with player workload the way it is, and our team aging, it's important to make sure we really build depth and have a lot of contenders for the WC squad, and be able to slot players in and out if people get injured, suspended, etc.

The ideal situation would be to have two world class XIs who we could interchange with no significant loss in quality - ie we could play one XI against SL and a completely different XI against SA and still aim to win both matches. The the ABs did the same during the Grand Slam if I remember - they played one team against Ireland, a completely different one against England, a different one again against Scotland and a different one against Wales and won the lot. It's a fair point to say they probably have the two best teams in the world at the moment.