Wallabies coach Eddie Jones liked what he saw as Australia A crushed the French Barbarians on Tuesday, but warned that the youngsters on show for the tourists still need to improve considerably to become stars in the future.
Jones named an inexperienced team to face the French outfit, with 13 of his players under the age of 24 and three, including Leroy Houston, yet to taste action in the provincial competition that has become the Super 14 for 2006.
And while he saw plenty of positives in the impressive 42-12 victory in Bordeaux, Jones cautioned against any member of the team getting ahead of himself.
"There are some players there who showed some good skill in certain aspects of their game but in other aspects, that are more important in Test matches, they need to have a considerable improvement to be Test players," Jones said.
"I think we saw a lot of players who will be in the World Cup squad. How they develop will vary, but I think if we can get five, six, seven or eight of those players coming through to be genuine Test players then we’ll be pretty happy."
Having nominated Tatafu Polota-Nau, Scott Fava, David Croft and Houston as the players who particularly caught his eye, Jones added that he was concerned by the rolling mauls that let in both the hosts’ tries.
"It’s an area we need to get more and more experience in," Jones said.
"Those young guys don’t play against sides like that so that is a good experience for them and I thought at the end of the game they started to adjust better and make better decisions."
