JOHANNESBURG :Australia have made a change to their bench for Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash against South Africa after re-evaluating the cover they want for veteran flyhalf James O’Connor.
Coach Joe Schmidt on Friday decided he would pick Tane Edmed, who has a single cap, as cover and has taken loose forward Nick Champion de Crespigny off the list of replacements he had named on Thursday.
Ben Donaldson was originally meant to be cover for the 35-year-old O’Connor, who will play for the Wallabies for the first time in three years, but went down with an unspecified upper leg injury in training on Thursday ahead of the test at Ellis Park.
It added to the woes at No. 10 for Australia, whose first choice Tom Lynagh suffered a concussion in the third test against the British & Irish Lions in Sydney a fortnight ago and did not travel for the two matches against the Springboks. The second clash is in Cape Town next weekend.
“Dono (Donaldson) went down in last-minute training on Thursday afternoon, which wasn’t ideal after the team has been announced internally,” explained captain Harry Wilson at a press conference on Friday.
“We named Crep (Champion de Crespigny) but the coach has had a few meetings overnight and again this morning to work out what would be the best replacement and decided to put in Tane, which he’s really excited about.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him, he’s been around the group now for a little while and what he’s put in on the training park has been first class,” Wilson added.
The captain is also pleased to see O’Connor back in the line-up.
“After three years, I know he’s really excited to be out there. He’s 35 years old. He’s got plenty of experience. He’s got plenty of confidence, and we can’t wait to see him go out there and do his job.”
O’Connor will also form an experienced halfback combination with Nic White, who put off his retirement from international rugby to travel with the Wallabies after injury to Jake Gordon, who played at scrumhalf in the first two tests against the Lions last month.
“When you have two players in two really key positions, who have played everywhere around the world and in really big matches, definitely it’s a lot of confidence and they both have quite loud voices in the group and a lot of respect from everyone in the group,” added Wilson.
“So I’m really looking forward to seeing them lead us around the park.”
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
