Senior Wallaby Matt Burke says he hasn’t
given up on
his international rugby career after being overlooked for the
Wallabies
training squad on Thursday.
National coach Eddie Jones said it was far from a death-knell for
players
left out of a 22-man squad of New South Wales and Queensland players
selected
for a skills session here next week.
The 76-Test veteran was the most notable omission with former Test
centres
Steve Kefu and Nathan Grey also overlooked for the preliminary squad.
Burke, 31, who had a mixed Super 12 season with the
under-achieving NSW
Waratahs, said he felt his form warranted selection.
“It’s disheartening not to be chosen in the squad, knowing
whom they’ve
picked … you want to put yourself in contention to be picked and
show some
form and I thought I was accomplishing that but it’s contrary to what
other
people thought,” Burke said on Thursday.
“The shoulder injury wasn’t the greatest timing but when I
got a chance to
play I thought I was playing reasonably well.”
Burke and Waratahs teammate Grey will leave on Monday to play for
the
Barbarians against Scotland, Wales and England later this month.
The Barbarians, coached by former Wallabies and NSW coach Bob
Dwyer, play
Scotland at Murrayfield on May 22, Wales at Bristol on May 26 and
England at
Twickenham on May 30.
Burke, Australia’s most capped fullback, is contracted to the
Australian
Rugby Union until the end of the year, but he is now under pressure
to have it
renewed for 2005 if an option is not taken up by the ARU and NSW
Rugby.
“Like everyone playing in the Super 12 I still aspire to play
for my
country,” Burke said.
“I’m waiting for them to come back to me in terms of whether
they want me,
if I’m in NSW’s plans for next year.
“I think there’s still life in the legs and I have something
to offer.
“If that’s not the case I suppose I’ll have to canvass stuff
overseas.”
Jones said the Wallabies squad, to be announced on May 25, was far
from cut
and dried and pointed to Burke’s early omission from the Test lineup
last year.
“Burkie was also not in the squad at the start of last year
and ended up
playing the first Test of the Tri-nations against South Africa so any
player
who’s outside the squad there’s still very much the ability for them
to get
into back into it,” Jones said on Thursday.
“This is just a squad for one day of training and then
depending on what
happens with the Brumbies, we’ll will name another squad and then it
continues
onwards, it’s just one selection.”
Australia train-on squad (minus ACT players still in Super 12): Al
Baxter,
Brendan Cannon, Matt Dunning, Justin Harrison, David Lyons, Morgan
Turinui,
Lote Tuqiri, Cameron Shepherd, Dan Vickerman, Phil Waugh, Chris
Whitaker (New
South Wales); Sean Hardman, Nathan Sharpe, John Roe, David Croft,
Luke
Doherty, Josh Valentine, Elton Flately, Wendell Sailor, Peter Hynes,
Drew
Mitchell, Chris Latham (Queensland).
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