For the first two Tests of the season, against the Springboks in Brisbane on July 18 and Argentina in Mendoza on July 25, Cheika named a 40-man squad that includes, for the first time, overseas-based players — Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell, both of Toulon.

Even though Cheika deliberately kept his squad large, naming three complete sets of tight forwards to make training as brutally confrontational as possible, still neither Robinson nor Alexander could make it. It is painfully difficult to realise that, after 72 Tests apiece, their international careers are almost certainly over.

On the day that French referee Romain Poite, who has punished Wallabies scrums many times in the past, was named to control the Australia-England pool match at the World Cup, it was almost as though Cheika was showing Australia are changing their ways at the set piece.

O’Connor and Cummins illustrated a different point, emphasising how tricky it will be for Australians to play in Europe or Japan before returning home for Super Rugby as both missed out on selection because of injury and loss of form. Take note, Ben McCalman, Bernard Foley and even Israel Folau as you prepare to head off for adventures in Japan — Folau to the Docomo Reds Hurricanes, it was announced yesterday — before heading home to play Super Rugby. Burn-out is for real.

But if Cheika was ending careers, he also was bringing four uncapped players into the squad in Brumbies lock Rory Arnold, young Reds centre Samu Kerevi, Waratahs winger Taqele Naiyaravoro and New Zealand-born Melbourne Rebels prop Toby Smith.

Naiyaravovo could have been snapped up by Fiji for their cup campaign until Cheika headed them off at the pass, but Smith, for all his four seasons and two Super Rugby titles with the Chiefs, was born in Townsville and always was made to measure for a Wallabies jersey.

For good measure, Cheika also has resurrected the Test career of Greg Holmes, who last played for Australia against Canada in the 2007 World Cup. He has been knocking on the door for the past several seasons but successive Wallaby coaches looked elsewhere. Finally, however, he put together such a stunning season that Cheika had to select the 32-year-old. Mind you, Cheika ruefully admitted that, during his long time overseas, he had no idea of Holmes’s 13-Test former life in the Wallabies.

“It’s always in the back of your mind,” Holmes said, when asked if he feared he had played his last Test. “I’m getting a little bit older now and as the years roll on young guys are always going to come through, so I’m ecstatic to be picked again.”

Significantly, the one choice that Cheika deferred is the one most keenly anticipated, the choice of Wallaby captain. He will wait until Monday when the squad is based at its training camp in Caloundra, before settling on Stephen Moore or Michael Hooper to lead the side.

“We’ll do it early in the camp, probably Monday,” Cheika said. “I want to talk to the players first. I want to have the whole squad there and we can talk about it first together, clear that and then we can announce it.”

Cheika wanted to reintroduce Giteau and Mitchell, who last played for the Wallabies in 2011 and 2012 respectively, as quickly as possible to bring them up to speed.

“Some guys they wouldn’t have met before, so the earlier I get them here and get them having a look at the team, the better we will be making a decision for the longer term.”

Yet while Cheika is determined to bring them up to pace, he admits the reason he has brought Dean Mumm into the squad following his outstanding season for Exeter is so he can tap into the second-rower’s broad knowledge of who and what the Wallabies might face during the World Cup.

The third overseas-based player who qualified under the seven years and 60 Test rule, George Smith, wasn’t included in the squad but Cheika still held out hope for him.

Smith will struggle as a number seven, especially with Liam Gill also having been excluded, but Cheika has another potential role in mind.

“George has played a lot of eight and I think he’s comfortable with the role I might want him to fill if necessary,” said Cheika.