It’s all change for the Wallabies as they look for revenge against Scotland

It was all change for the Wallabies yesterday in Sydney when coach Robbie Deans announced a side that contained just two survivors from the last time these teams met back in 2009 at Murrayfield. Halfback Will Genia and hooker Stephen Moore are the only players who know what it is like to lose to Scotland when they ended up on the wrong end of a nail-biting 9-8 loss in what was Scotland coach Andy Robinson’s second match in charge.

As expected, ten of the starting 15 are culled from Western Force and the Queensland Reds who both had Super 15 byes at the weekend. The other five starters will be backing up with two games in just four or five days and some might even face Wales in the match on Saturday. Flanker David Pocock takes over the captaincy from James Horwell who injured his hamstring recently.

“We have looked at all the options around each position in terms of the relative workloads each of the players has already had this year,” said coach Robbie Deans at the announcement, “the amount of preparation time we were able to have with them before the game and their ability to back up off a tight turnaround before settling on the final combination.”

Berrick Barnes will fill the all important No 10 shirt, with his rivals having fallen like flies. James O’Connor, who can play just about anywhere, was touted as the Wallabies’ first choice before he lacerated his kidney while Kurtley Beale is also injured. Therefore the focus turned to Quade Cooper but the Queensland ten has suffered from poor form and a serious knee injury incurred during the World Cup. He has managed just one-and-a-half Super rugby matches since returning to action so Deans has overlooked him for the first test of the Aussie season although he is sure to feature against Wales at some point.

Veteran Nathan Sharpe earns his 102nd cap in the Wallaby second row and he will become the third most capped Australian of all time around 7.30 pm on Tuesday evening after leap-frogging David Campese (101 caps) in the rankings. At the other end of the scale five players will be making their debut against Scotland.

Fullback Luke Morahan has come through the sevens system and he is joined by prop Dan Palmer, winger Joseph Tomane (both Brumbies), centre Mike Harris and breakaway David Dennis. The latter is a young man with a big future who has been touted as the next big thing for some time now, having toured twice with the Wallabies in 2009 and 2011 without featuring in a test. Even Scotland coach Andy Robinson was purring his praises the other day and Dennis is also versatile enough to double up at No 8, a role he filled when the Australians walloped the Barbarians by 60-11 last November at Twickenham.

Michael Hooper is expected to replace Pocock off the bench at some point in Tuesday’s match to take the Wallaby skipper out of the firing line with Wales next up on Saturday.

“Dave (Pocock) has been an established leader within our framework for some time,” said Deans. “He’s already led the Wallabies in a non-test match (that 60-11 win) and he has handled the job well in difficult circumstances with the Western Force this year.”

While this is a make-do-and-mend Wallaby side with, arguably, no more than five first-choice players in the run-on fifteen, the Scots know that younger, aspiring players have a point to prove and, moreover, they will be wary of an ambush after the Scots’ heroics the last time the two teams met. They will be eager to impress but they won’t be the only ones according to the Wallaby coach.

“They (Scotland) will be hungry and will sense the opportunity, striking us first up on a limited preparation,” said Deans. “A factor of the Scots’ form under Andy Robinson is that they are very well organised. The Scottish teams, in my experience, have always been extremely physical in their approach so they will be very direct and come right at us.”