SAINT ETIENNE: Tate McDermott admits he is "not quite sure" whether he will lead the Wallabies on Monday (AEST) as the team forwards coach defended the controversial captaincy merry-go-round.
Eddie Jones had floated a job share arrangement in April and has taken that to the extreme by using six different captains in just seven Tests this season.
Hooker Dave Porecki is the latest to have a go after Michael Hooper, James Slipper, Allan Alaalatoa, McDermott and Will Skelton.
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Former Wallaby Morgan Turinui told Stan Sport that instability was "hard to fathom" for fans in a World Cup year.
It is certainly hard to imagine Australia's Test cricket team taking such a chop and change approach and certainly no Rugby World Cup winning side has gone remotely in that direction.
McDermott is the vice-captain but missed the Fiji game with concussion as Porecki took the reins instead.
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"I'm not quite sure," the halfback said when quizzed about the role.
"We've got a strong leadership group, so anyone in that group is capable of taking that role. You saw Dave Porecki take over and I missed that game so we'll just have to see."
Wallabies forwards coach Neal Hatley said Jones was trying to create an inclusive high performance environment.
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"That leadership group, which still includes people like Skelts, Slips, Tate, you know, they sit down, they work along with the coaching group, how we want to play, what we want the game to look like.
"We've been in enough games now and lost people in important positions to know that it's not just one person," Hatley said.
Hatley was further pressed on how rare that approach was.
The leading World Cup contenders all have stable captains: France (Antoine Dupont), Ireland (Jonathan Sexton), South Africa (Siya Kolisi) and New Zealand (Sam Cane).
"Some (teams) are maybe a bit more stable so guys like South Africa, they're eight years into a cycle or Fiji, they're eight years into a cycle.
"We're seven, eight games into it… it's not a massive thing for us.
"We've got people that do that in the week, that have done it in games for us. So we'll decide on the best person."
McDermott is also expecting the 60,000 crowd to be heavily pro-Wales.
"I think what we've seen, every game of this World Cup, for some reason teams don't like us. So they're singing the Fijian songs, no doubt they'll be singing the Wales songs this weekend. But we're across that, we're embracing that, We don't mind that at all."
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