World Cup-winning captain Nick Farr-Jones believes the new-era Wallabies, with a beautiful blend of youth and experience, have the potential to become one of the all-time great rugby teams.

Give the batch of Test rookies time to bloom and watch them go, says Farr-Jones, who rates the Wallabies' class of 2008 to the side he inherited as captain in the late 80s which went on to win the Webb Ellis Cup in 1991.

Four of the 22-man squad for the Bledisloe Cup opener against the All Blacks - starting backs Peter Hynes, Ryan Cross and Luke Burgess, plus bench warmer Timana Tahu - have all been thrown into the Test fray for the first time this season under new coach Robbie Deans.

As have Lachie Turner, Dean Mumm and Ben Alexander, while Berrick Barnes and James Horwill were blooded only last year.

The promising crop of new talent reminds Farr-Jones of the era 20 years ago when the likes of Jason Little, Tim Horan, Willie Ofahengaue, Phil Kearns, Tony Daly and Ewen McKenzie were plucked from virtual obscurity before developing into world champions.

Farr-Jones rates his "91-92 team as one of the best of all time" and believes Deans can turn his group - led by world-class old heads like Matt Giteau, Lote Tuqiri, George Smith, Phil Waugh, Nathan Sharpe and Dan Vickerman - into a similarly triumphant outfit.

"Probably I would compare this team, arguably, to our team of say 1989-1990," Farr-Jones said.

"They've got, I think, the basis of a very good team and I would imagine if we're all patient and we give the new coach some time and the experienced players and the new players some time just to mature, I think there's a mix of players that could certainly go on to be a great Wallaby team in a year or two, and let's hope in three years' time.

"When I took over the captaincy in `88, 89, the first two years, we could put together a fantastic game.

"My biggest frustration was that we could be great one week and lousy the next week and we had to work that out, how to change that, and we did work it out.

"I think of the last sort of 23, 24 Tests that I played, we probably won about 85 per cent of them.

"We became a very consistent team. It didn't happen by mistake. We had to work at it and we had to change our culture."

Farr-Jones said three Tests in particular convinced him he was going to be part of a cherished era in Australian rugby history.

"The Test match (we won) against the All Blacks at Ballymore in 1988 when the Blacks were almost untouchable," he said.

"I think of the first Test against the Lions in `89 (that we won), I think in the first Test in Strasbourg against the French (that we won when Horan and Little played in the centres together for the first time for Australia).

"In the late 80s, and certainly 1990, that team that won the crucial game in Wellington (21-9) against the All Blacks to stop their record of unbroken wins (proved) we had the basis of a fantastic team.

"We had young guys who were brought in by our selection team - the likes of Horan and Little, Eales, Ofahengaue, Kearns, Daly, McKenzie ... people that really the rugby public hadn't heard a lot about.

"Some of them certainly came out of non-provincial rugby and second grade in their clubs.

"If you can get that mix of experience and youth and then you engender a great spirit within the team, which I suspect from a distance this Wallabies team is starting to get, with time - and I mentioned 12-24 months - they've got the basis and the mix of a fantastic team."

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