After taking Ewen McKenzie's Wallabies to Europe at the end of last year, the 40 players named in an extended Rugby Championship squad this week are well and truly Cheika's picks. He's built in some fat – the official list will be trimmed by almost 25 per cent before the opening Test against South Africa in a fortnight – but what Wallabies coach wouldn't with so little time up their sleeve.

The reactions around rugby land were almost unanimously positive on Friday. Even those with the greatest respect for the contributions of Benn Robinson and Ben Alexander did not protest too much at Cheika's tough call to omit both from his group. The list of backs drew pleasing murmurs, while the recall of experienced Wallabies Drew Mitchell and Matt Giteau was roundly applauded before either had laced up a training boot.

Yet the question remains. Can these Wallabies win the World Cup?

"The great challenge in this country at the moment is who, out of the current Wallabies squad, would you choose over an All Black in an ANZAC XV," former Test centre and Fox Sports analyst Rod Kafer says.

"It's hard, in my opinion, to make an argument for more than one or two players – maybe Israel Folau, Tevita Kuridrani, and maybe David Pocock?"

Bugger it, then. Why pitch up at all, if all that faces Australian fans is a mob of insufferable England supporters chortling all the way to their warm beers after a Twickenham bloodbath?

Because talent is only half the story.

"We've seen the All Blacks field the best team at every single World Cup but they've only won two," Kafer says.

"Cheika has made some brave selections around the front row and if they can deliver a stable platform to get Australia through the pool stages – because all things being equal it will be about the scrum against England and Wales – somebody else might knock over the All Blacks and then it's a level playing field."

It's not Braveheart material, exactly, but perhaps Wallabies supporters are prepared to take bracing realism over hyperbole for the first time since 2003.

A general acknowledgement that Cheika and his 40 top picks might well be up against it in England in September could just be the healthiest attitude Australian rugby has adopted in the past decade, during which time the Wallabies' world ranking took a dive and the familiar weight and form of the Bledisloe Cup could not be so easily recalled.

Still, if there is optimism up for grabs, Australians are usually the first in line. So in the spirit of keeping it real, Kafer and World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen singled out a few areas for urgent attention.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Will it be the hardened veteran or the future king? Stephen Moore has the experience and communication skills, while Michael Hooper is the future of the game in Australia. On which worthy candidate will Cheika lean during a relentless World Cup campaign?

"One of the things that is difficult for a coach is when the captain isn't the first one picked," says Macqueen, whose not always smooth early relationship with John Eales matured into one of the most productive captain-coach collaborations in Australian rugby history. "It's got to be someone he knows will be the first player picked in the side."

On that basis, Moore will be handed a second chance at the captaincy after a knee injury ended his leadership days within a minute of kick-off against France last year. Hooper and Cheika have a close relationship but the young No.7 is in fierce competition for a starting spot with another former captain, David Pocock.

Hooper was also put under immense pressure as Wallabies leader when the team imploded under McKenzie last year, and he deliberately kept a lower profile at the Waratahs this season. If Cheika can afford his young openside the time to breath and play unencumbered by extra formal duties, you get the sense he will.

IZZY READY FOR THE RAIN?
Much was made of Israel Folau's foray into the midfield at the Waratahs this year, but Kafer is not convinced that Cheika and attack coach Stephen Larkham will extend the experiment to the Wallabies just yet.

"I think he'll definitely see Izzy as a fullback," Kafer says.

"The issue at this World Cup is what the Wallabies do on a wet day. It's conditions Australia really struggle with, it's our greatest fear – waking up on a Saturday morning and seeing rain. We're just not a wet weather team."

Keeping Folau at fullback and deploying big bodies elsewhere in the back line makes sense to Kafer, who applauded the selection of uncapped Fijian players Samu Kerevi and Taqele Naiyaravoro.

"The concept of moving Izzy into the mid-field is abated somewhat when you can pick Kerevi or Naiyaravoro, who would give them ball-carrying ability on a wet day."

PROPPING UP THE WALLABIES

Robinson has been left out of squads many times over during an enormous 10-season career at provincial and Test level. McKenzie made the same call two years ago when he took over from Robbie Deans before the Rugby Championship in 2013. He was drafted back in after two Bledisloe Cup Test losses but has not started a game since.

While Cheika may get through the Rugby Championship without giving him a second thought, shipping off to England without the internationally-respected scrummager is another thing entirely.

But you can sense what Cheika might be thinking. Both Robinson and Alexander have been the faces of the Wallabies scrum the entire time it has endured the perception as one of the weakest in world rugby.

Former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer often floats the theory that Steve Hansen cut workhorse prop Wyatt Crockett from his 2011 World Cup squad for the sole reason that he was a penalty magnet for referees, and it could be that a similar theory is being applied here.

"It's been an issue we've had and not been able to overcome, so he's looking for fresh blood there," Macqueen says.

Kafer calls it a "big, brave call" and a calculated risk. "But I believe it's one worth taking. Robinson can't go to the World Cup based on form and neither can Alexander."

Cheika has never shied away from a big, brave call. Now it is up to the beneficiaries to prove him right.