Mass Changes to Wallabies for Saturday

Injury and a punishing travel schedule have forced Australian coach Eddie Jones to make a number of changes for Saturday’s test against Ireland at Lansdowne Road. Jones announced six changes from the side that started against Argentina last week. Despite that Jones said they’d picked the best available side. We’ve picked a pretty exciting line-up for this test, he said at the team hotel in Portmarnock. We’ve got Adam Freier making his run-on debut, Matt Giteau on the bench but at the same time we’ve got seasoned campaigners like David Giffin making a comeback from surgery and Owen Finegan starting in the second row.

The changes in the side see Nick Stiles replace Bill Young at loosehead prop, Adam Freier for Jeremy Paul in the middle of the front-row, Owen Finegan and David Giffin for Dan Vickerman and Justin Harrison respectively in the engine-room, Scott Staniforth for Stirling Mortlock on one wing, Wendall Sailor for the injured Ben Tune on the other, Matt Burke for Mat Rogers at full-back with Mortlock moving to outside centre instead of Burke.

Australia. M Burke; W Sailor, S Mortlock, D Herbert, S Stanforth; S Larkham, G Gregan capt; N Stiles, A Freier, P Noriega; O Finegan, D Giffin; M Cockbain, G Smith, T Kefu.
Replacements. B Cannon, B Darwin, J Harrison, D Croft, C Whitaker, E Flatley, M Giteau (23rd man D Vickerman).