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Dave Rennie to name one more debutant for final Bledisloe Cup clash
By AAP
Underlining his faith in Australia's generation next, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie will blood an eighth test debutant on Saturday night.
Lachie Swinton will start in the fourth and final Bledisloe Cup clash of the year against the All Blacks in Brisbane, relegating his NSW Waratahs teammate Ned Hanigan to the bench.
The blindside flanker will form a dynamic Wallabies back row with fellow emerging star Harry Wilson and 102-test skipper Michael Hooper.
Barring a training injury, the 22-year-old will be the latest young talent Rennie has introduced to the international arena in 2020.
Wilson, fellow back-rower Fraser McReight and exciting backs Filipo Daugunu, Hunter Paisami, Irae Simone, Noah Lolesio and Tate McDermott have already made their test debuts in the Bledisloe Cup cauldron this year.
Daugunu and Simone, though, are under pressure to retain their spots in the Wallabies' starting XV, with utility ace Reece Hodge pressing hard for a run-on berth.
The goalkicking Hodge could be named on the wing or in the centres or five-eighth when Rennie names his full match-day 23 later on Thursday.
After a draw and two defeats in the opening three matches, the Wallabies are hoping to avoid a sixth series whitewash in the past decade at the hands of the All Blacks.
- Darren Walton
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Latest Comments
There's no easy fix here. From a geography standpoint, South Africa is kind of on an island alone in the rugby world, much like Argentina.
They don't have enough talent to have a top tier domestic league of their own, and it won't support the union financially. Best case you could hope for would be the five extant franchises (including Cheetahs) and perhaps a team from Namimbia. Gives you a 6 team league, that's not enough. Plus again, it's just not financially sustainable either.
At the same time, it's not really great for them to be involved in either the European or the Pacific rugby set up. That said, as bad as the travel is, at least Europe makes more sense from a time zone perspective. I still think it's the least bad option. Also has done wonders for the URC.
I don't think though, that it makes very much sense to have 4 teams from the URC excluded from European qualification. Not to mention, being able to compete in the Champions Cup was a big draw for the South African clubs anyway.
So yeah, I don't really see a change that makes more sense than the less than ideal situation that already exists.
Go to commentsMoriaty refused to play for wales also he’s injured, France’s is being coy about wales, North in the dark but Sam David and jerad are you joking their not good enough
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