Wallabies playmaker James O'Connor hasn't shut the door on a return to fullback as the battle for the No. 10 heats up with 2021 Rugby Championship hero Quade Cooper making his return to the squad, alongside young star Noah Lolesio.
Forced to sit out much of the back end of the Super Rugby Pacific competition, including the Queensland Reds' quarter-final loss to the Crusaders, due to an on-going hamstring injury, O'Connor says he's fit and ready to take to the field for the Wallabies in the opening Test against England in July.
One of the most experienced players named in the 2022 squad, O'Connor will battle long-time teammate and one of the fellow 'three amigos' Cooper, who made a sensational return to the Wallabies last year in O'Connor's absence as he helped Australia to five straight wins including two famous victories over the World Champion Springboks, for the No. 10 jersey.
Rounding out the playmaker options is young Brumbies fly-half Lolesio, who will be vying for a chance to lead Australia after he took his side to the Super Rugby Pacific semifinals and came within centimetres of kicking his team into the competition's Final.
"It's high competition [for the No.10 jersey], each of us sort of play in our own unique way and we all have different strengths and weaknesses," O'Connor told media from Wallabies camp on the Sunshine Coast. "To be fair, it's gonna be a good, tough battle so we'll see what happens over the next few weeks in training camp and see where the cards lie I guess."
With so much competition for the No.10 jersey, O'Connor says he hasn't ruled out taking on the fullback role, despite how much he's focused on improving his game at fly-half.
"If Dave [Rennie] wanted me to play 15, I'd put my hand up for sure. We [Dave Rennie] spoke a little bit about it last year, but nothing this year, this year has all been about playing 10, improving my game there and just working on the little things that we discussed that I could benefit from.
"So it's just been about 10 this year, but to be fair, we haven't had too much communication; when you're in Super season it's sort of eyes on the prize there and now we're in [camp] we'll see what happens."
Forced to sit out the Wallabies' home Tests last year through a groin injury, O'Connor made his return to the starting line-up during their end of year tour in Europe after Cooper withdrew from travelling following Australia's win over Japan.
It would ultimately be the tour from hell for the Wallabies, where they lost every match, including a mauling from this year's touring side England, with O'Connor admitting he failed to play to conditions and his game suffered for it.
"To be honest, it wasn't my best tour," O'Connor said. "I just found it a little bit difficult to get into the game, whether that was just sort of the way we we're playing as a group, but also just myself I was probably playing a step too deep. I was probably preparing for conditions that didn't actually come. It was actually pretty quick over there, we were sort of thinking it was going to be a bit more wet weather footy.
"Obviously leading into Test matches it is a step up and you want to be prepared physically, so you can put your stamp on the game, so I definitely feel like I'm in that place now after a few weeks. My leg feels good and I've been hitting all my benchmarks which we've discussed with the coaches so it's time to put it out there on the field now and go from there."
Following mixed results of 2021 and with just over 12 months until the Rugby World Cup in France, the Wallabies are determined to build confidence and consistency as well as correcting the issues that plagued them late last year and earlier against the All Blacks.
"We want to build on what we did last year. There was a good start but we discussed as a group, there's plenty to work on," O'Connor said. "We went through our game parameters and sort of levelled ourselves up against the rest of the world and some of the other power nations, and we were missing the mark quite a bit in key areas. So from my perspective, the goal for me is consistency every week.
"It's not like having one huge performance and then dipping down, you want to be a well-oiled machine when you get on that field so everyone knows you're going to perform as a group each time.
"To start with England, they're going to come over strong and they've got a good squad, they've got plenty of players to pick from so from our perspective it's about focusing on ourselves and going from there."