Hindmarsh recalled in Kangaroos overhaul
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 29, 2009
LEEDS: Nathan Hindmarsh thought he would not play another Test so in keeping with that he will treat this one like his last. After two years out of representative football, Hindmarsh will again play for the Kangaroos as part of a significantly overhauled squad to face England.Coach Tim Sheens has drafted Hindmarsh into his starting back row, and is set to give Test debuts to hooker Robbie Farah, prop David Shillington and Luke Lewis, who was part of the 2003 tour of England but didn't play a Test. Ryan Hoffman and Sam Thaiday have been dropped and while Kurt Gidley and Trent Waterhouse are on a six-man bench, the coach is strongly leaning towards an interchange with Brett White joining Shillington, Lewis and Farah.Hindmarsh, who showed Sheens his eagerness to return to the Test arena last week by running eight kilometres back to the team's London hotel after training, maintained he felt little emotion when told of his return from the wilderness. "I didn't want to come over here and not play," he said."I've got that opportunity so I'm happy about that. I don't feel like I've been out of the rep game for that long €“ it kind of feels like I haven't been out of it at all."After being ignored for NSW and Australia since 2007, he admitted he had huge doubts about whether he would be in this position again."Yeah, it was like 'oh well, I did my time', enjoyed it and moved for other players to come in," the 30-year-old Parramatta back-rower said. "I was disappointed but I wasn't thinking I should have definitely been there."The fact there have been so many changes following the 20-20 draw with New Zealand means Hindmarsh, who was forced to shelve his own buck's weekend at the Gundagai races in order to tour, will approach the match with England, in Wigan on Saturday (Sunday 1.30am AEDT), as his last."Just with what's happened with the changes for this Test, you don't know what's going to happen in the next Test," Hindmarsh said. "And we're in a bit of a shitty position already €“ if we don't beat the Poms on the weekend, we're screwed."Sheens was adamant he altered his squad not so much as a result of a somewhat disappointing start against the Kiwis but with England in mind. "I was looking for his work rate in D in tight, also his experience," he said of Hindmarsh. "The fact that he hasn't played that long ago ... obviously, he's a leader amongst the guys too. He's been ready to play. He's shown plenty of enthusiasm. When he was with the Emus for the week, he represented them and they looked to him. There's that element in him."With the Kiwis working the Australians over on the ground, diluting the game of hooker Cameron Smith, Sheens is likely to settle on a squad which includes four front-rowers, including tour bolter Shillington."Sides are trying to take Cameron out of the game, limit our ruck speed to get a good look at our back line," Sheens said. "They are getting plenty of chances to get up and in our face. We're going to have to work hard at overcoming that so I look for another front-rower with some size."While he is yet to make a decision whether Farah plays in place of Gidley, Sheens said he might play Smith and his Wests Tigers rake at the same time, with the Melbourne captain in the back row or the halves in patches. "Whether or not we use Farah ... a lot will depend how much ball we get early, what sort of speed of ruck we're getting," Sheens said. "He [Smith] had a very tough game. He said it's one of the toughest games he's played."THE TEAM1 Billy Slater2 JarrydHayne3 Justin Hodges4 Greg Inglis5 Brett Morris6 Darren Lockyer (c)7 Johnathan Thurston8 Ben Hannant9 Cameron Smith10 Petero Civoniceva11 Paul Gallen12 AnthonyWatmough13 Nathan HindmarshInterchange (two to be omitted):Robbie Farah, David Shillington,Luke Lewis, BrettWhite,TrentWaterhouse, Kurt Gidley
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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