Saint-Etienne: Wallabies coach Dave Rennie says he has refrained from starting towering second-rower Will Skelton in Australia’s upcoming Test against France due a short lead-in and the excellent performances of Nick Frost and Cadeyrn Neville last week in a tense victory over Scotland.
It comes as Jock Campbell prepares to start at fullback against the world’s second-ranked side after an ankle injury to Tom Banks.
Rennie has made four changes – some forced and some on form – to his starting XV from a one-point win over Scotland at Murrayfield that began Australia’s five-Test tour on a positive, yet relieving, note.
Before the tour, Rennie said he “probably” would start Skelton against France given the 21-Test Wallaby was benched in all three matches of a winless campaign last year in the Northern Hemisphere.
But for the 16th time in 22 Test appearances, Skelton, with unfulfilled potential at Test level and a genuine star in Europe, will once again come off the bench.
Rennie assures, however, Skelton will be in the starting XV for the Italy Test next week in Florence.
Will Skelton at Wallabies training. Credit:Andrew Phan/Wallabies Media
History shows the Wallabies are twice as likely to win if Skelton starts.
“We felt the two locks were excellent last week. We want to reward them,” Rennie said.
“With no Allan [Alaalatoa] and Taniela starting for us, we’ve got Tom Robertson on the bench and we think Will coming on behind him will also help. You’ve got to look at what team you’re going to finish with. We reckon he’ll add a lot to that and the plan would be to start him against Italy.
“There’s also quite a bit [of detail] to get your head around.”
The Wallabies have been hit with more frustrating injury news, with Banks hurting his ankle on the weekend.
It sees Campbell, who didn’t touch the ball in a 13-minute cameo off the bench on debut, earn a maiden start at international level.
With Andrew Kellaway preferred to remain on the wing, Campbell will be thrown in the deep end in front of more than 80,000 French fans at Stade de France in Paris.
“We were keen to give him a start on this tour and we considered Scotland,” said Rennie of Campbell. “He’s really impressed us and is a really smart footballer. He’s got good feet and a good skill set.
“Banksy picked up a bit of an ankle injury last week, quite early in the game. We made a call to give Jock the start this week.”
Halfback Tate McDermott drops out of the 23 altogether but Rennie and his coaches had always intended to rotate the three No.9s on this tour.
Nic White, who was sharp against Scotland, gets the starting spot with Jake Gordon on the bench.
Rennie explained why he is happy to keep chopping and changing his team on this tour, when some believe consistent selections are more important.
Jock Campbell with his parents after Saturday’s Test against Scotland.Credit:Wallabies
He said the fourth Test of the tour against Ireland will be where Australia fields its absolute best side.
In reality, what happens in these five Tests will be forgotten by the time Australia kicks off its World Cup campaign in September.
“We’ve got three excellent nines on tour,” Rennie said. “It’s a position we’ve got genuine depth in. Whitey gets his chance this week. Jake will start next week.
“We’ll definitely pick and stick next year. What we’ve got to understand is we can’t put our best out every week. I reckon that’s a struggle playing five internationals in a row over here. No one does that any more. For what value in the end?
“We’ve got a hell of a lot of guys who aren’t here who we think will be part of our World Cup squad. It’s important that we get opportunities for certain guys. When we look at our three nines, we could play one of them every week, but if he gets injured and doesn’t go to a World Cup, we’ve missed an opportunity over here.”
Elsewhere, Lalakai Foketi replaces Hunter Paisami at No.12 and will partner Len Ikitau in the centres.
“We just think [Foketi] is a bigger body and he’s got good feet and a good skillset,” Rennie said. “We think that’ll be important this week.”
Rennie has gone five forwards and three backs on the bench. Pete Samu has returned from a back injury, with last week’s debutant Langi Gleeson missing. Reece Hodge also comes onto the bench to replace the void left by Banks.
Watch all the action from the Wallabies’ Spring Tour with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport. Continues this weekend (all times AEDT) with Scotland v Fiji and Italy v Samoa (both Saturday 11.50pm), Wales v All Blacks (Sunday 2am), Ireland v South Africa (Sunday 4.20am), France v Wallabies (Sunday 6.40am) and England v Argentina (Monday 1.05am).
