Wallabies beef up for Boks
Australian coach Robbie Deans has beefed up his pack ahead of Saturday's Tri-Nations match against South Africa in Durban.
The selections of Scott Higginbotham at the back of the scrum and Nathan Sharpe in the second row are the two changes to the Wallaby starting XV from the outfit that lost to New Zealand last weekend.
Higginbotham and Sharpe take the places of Ben McCalman and Rob Simmons, respectively, as the Wallabies take on a much-changed Springbok XV in this crunch Tri-Nations encounter.
Despite last week's 14-30 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland, Australia still have a chance of bagging the Tri-Nations title for the first time in a decade, but must come away from King's Park with championship points to keep that reality alive ahead of the final round match against New Zealand in Brisbane on August 27.
McCalman has been retained in the matchday 22, meanwhile, but Simmons has been rested in a straight swap for Sharpe.
The second row place on the bench has been taken by the damaging Waratahs second rower Sitaleki Timani, who steps in for SA-born Dan Vickerman, who returned to Australia after last weekend's Test in order to continue his comeback with a full eighty minutes of club play this weekend with Sydney University.
Reds No.8 Radike Samo - who has not played Test rugby since 2004 - also comes onto the bench, which has reverted to a five-forward two-back split, in the place of Waratahs wing Lachie Turner.
"Rob has been troubled for a wee while now by a shoulder niggle," Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said.
"With so much rugby still to come this year, and a physically taxing afternoon in prospect, we thought it prudent to pull back on his involvement for now to allow his shoulder to rest up," he said, adding that Simmons was not in doubt for next week's World Cup squad naming.
Sharpe returns after getting through a full match in club play last weekend for the University of Queensland, while Higginbotham has been rewarded with a maiden Test start after some rousing performances off the bench for the Wallabies in the opening three matches of the year.
Although he was involved in last year's Tri-Nations squad, being robbed of a possible Test debut when forced from the bench at late notice last year in Pretoria; Higginbotham had to wait until the last game of 2010 before finally taking his maiden Test bow as a Wallaby, during the 59-16 demolition of France in Paris on the year-end tour.
"Scott has made a genuine impact in each of his Test outings to date this year," Deans noted, "and we'll be looking for him to do the same from the start this week."
A further change on the bench sees Brumbies prop Salesi Ma'afu enter for the first time this year, after missing the back end of Super Rugby due to a fractured arm, which was sustained against the Lions.
Ma'afu featured in 10 Tests during his maiden season as a Wallaby last year, starting in all six matches of last year's Tri-Nations series.
He has taken the bench position previously occupied by Pek Cowan.
"Salesi has worked hard to get back," said Deans.
The work he put in at our Gold Coast camp last week confirmed for us, on top of his medical clearance, that he is ready to go. He's in good nick physically, has scrummed well in training and, most importantly, has been there before.
"Salesi knows what to expect in these types of contests. We will be looking for him to add value when he gets his chance."
While the Australian starting line-up features nine of the players who started in last year's thrilling 41-39 win over South Africa at Bloemfontein, which was the Wallabies' second win in SA in three seasons, but Australia's first at a Highveld venue in 47 years; the Springboks will still field a vastly more experienced outfit.
Last week, Australia faced the most experienced All Blacks Test line-up, in terms of collective caps, in history, and the Springbok group is tipped to similarly boast a record number of South African appearances when it is named later today.
"We saw last week that the All Blacks hit the ground running, with a group that featured a number of experienced players coming off a brief break, and the Springboks will be no different," Deans said.
"We didn't handle the opening onslaught in Auckland and that set us on the back foot for the remainder of the match. The South Africans won't have missed that. More of the same will be coming. It is important we adapt better and get ourselves into the contest from the start."
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 James O'Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Scott Higginbotham, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (captain), 5 James Horwill, 4 Nathan Sharpe, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Sekope Kepu.
Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga'a, 17 Salesi Ma'afu, 18 Sitaleki Timani, 19 Ben McCalman, 20 Radike Samo, 21 Luke Burgess, 22 Anthony Fainga'a.
Date: Saturday, August 13
Venue: Mr Price Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)