Mal Meninga is seemingly no closer to deciding on his first choice number seven as the Rugby League World Cup quarter-finals approach.
Nathan Cleary had his chance to shine on Saturday morning (AEDT), with the Kangaroos putting a drubbing on Scotland, the final score reading a staggering 84 points to nil.
Cleary led the way for Australia throughout the game, and while Cameron Munster is one of the few players who will be automatic selections during the knockout stage at five-eighth, he suggested he took a backseat against Scotland to let Cleary run the team, despite ultimately ending up with five try assists.
“I thought the way Nath plays, he obviously loves structure and is really good at organising,” Munster told reporters.
“I thought if I let him do his thing, he'll be a lot more comfortable coming into his game. If I took on more ownership he might've been a bit more hesitant with his game.
“I told him just ‘be comfortable, I'll let you lead the team around and I'll inject myself when I need to'.
“He's done a lot at State of Origin and NRL level where he's led his team around and I feel like I can do both – play a little bit of structure and play a little bit of ad-lib off the back of what he wants to do.
“I was watching him do some things and thinking ‘Jesus, I need to jump in the game here soon'.”
Cleary's performance came after Daly Cherry-Evans wore the number seven in the opening game of the tournament against Fiji, which the Kangaroos also won comfortably.
It's now tipped that Cherry-Evans will return to the number seven for a clash with Italy this coming weekend, before Cleary gets another chance to shine as the games go up in intensity with a quarter-final likely to be played against Lebanon.
But that is where the shifting and changing will stop for the Kangaroos, with a semi-final likely to be played against New Zealand before the tournament's final.
Munster was brutally honest in his appraisal of the situation, suggesting coach Meninga needed to make a decision 'pretty quickly' over who his first choice spine will be, with combinations still needing to be built before the knockout rounds.
“Mal's going to have to sit down with us as a spine and decide pretty quickly who he wants to go with,” Munster said.
“We've got Italy next week but looking further [ahead] we need to make sure we've got our spine cemented in those bigger games.
“He'll probably put names in a hat and pick one out. That might be the best way to do it. I'm sure there will be a little bit of disappointment for one of those guys for sure, everyone wants to play for Australia.”
Australia will take on Italy at St Helens on Sunday morning (AEDT), before they line up for a quarter-final, likely to be on Saturday, November 5 (AEDT) at Huddersfield.
