Henjak crushed by Wallaby exclusion

Matt Henjak, the Force scrum-half who was once considered George Gregan’s successor-in-waiting, is crushed after being left out of Wallaby coach John Connolly’s 59-man training squad.

Henjak, who has been capped four times, was excluded for six other scrum-halves, such as the three Waratahs Brett Sheehan, Josh Valentine and Josh Holmes, as well as Matt Giteau, whom Connolly regards as a number nine.

“It’s definitely disappointing not being in the mix in a World Cup year,” Henjak told the Australian Associated Press (AAP)

“I think there’s going to have to be a drastic change if I’m going to get selected in a World Cup squad.

“That’s obviously disappointing, but you never say never.

“I was definitely hopeful I would’ve made the squad. But obviously selectors have seen something in my game or haven’t seen enough in my game to warrant selection.

“I’ve just got to work on the things I suppose I’ve got to work on and hopefully be in the mix later down the track.”

One of the other players counting himself unlucky is Force hooker Tai McIsaac, who won eight caps last year, but now finds himself ranked fifth rake in Australia.

Reds flanker David Croft, whom coach Eddie Jones rates as just about his best player, has also missed out on selection, despite nine of his teammates at his lowly side making the cut.

“I suppose Tai did a good job last year but you can only have so many,” John Connolly said.

“We deemed Freier, Moore, Paul and Tatafu were the four hookers for this squad. In terms of Croft, we’ve got [George] Smith and [Phil] Waugh and thought [David] Pocock’s form was outstanding this year, as was [Julian] Salvi’s.”

Speaking to French news agency AFP, Connolly said he felt the Australian teams had ended strongly, but did caution that there may be some psychological obstacles that need to be surmounted.

“It is an issue when players have gone through what they’ve gone through,” Connolly said.

“Three of our four teams finished on a high.

“And as far as the Wallabies are concerned, I’ve said from day one, even when the Australian teams were starting slowly, that once we got our top XV on the field, we’d be comfortable, provided the players came through the Super 14 in reasonably good shape.”