Reece Hodge and Carter Gordon during Australian team training.Credit:Getty
“Quade is coming back from a serious Achilles injury and we want to give him some time. Carter is coming through beautifully,I couldn’t be happier with him. He is one-out,one-back,we are just holding him back at the moment. We will let him go when we are over the rise. We are not at the rise yet.”
Jones told media in Sydney he had always intended to make changes for the second Test of the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship campaign.
“We have a rough plan of what we want to do. Our aim is to get to the World Cup in the best position and we have five games to do it,” Jones said.
“We are obviously a new team,and a new coaching staff. So we are finding out where we are at. We didn’t have a number in place but we were always going to make some changes.”
Mark Nawaqanitawase was outstanding on the Wallabies’ spring tour.Credit:PA
The future of Vunivalu remains unclear,with Jones saying his decision to start Nawaqanitawase was about building depth in the outside backs.
“We are developing the team for the World Cup,” he said.
“Mark and Suli and Marika,and we have[Andrew] Kellaway coming back,Jordy Petaia trained for the first time yesterday. So we have good competition in those spots. We are trying to build depth.
“It is not about guys solidifying positions,it’s about building depth,so we can take a team to the World Cup and in every position we have three players with the quality we need to have. And we don’t have that at the moment in all positions,so we are aiming to do that.”
Jones said Michael Hooper’s calf injury was minor,and his withdrawal was precautionary. McReight got the nod ahead of Samu as his replacement,but Kemeny – a 24-year-old Sydney Uni product – will get time in the back row as well.
Josh Kemeny has been named for his potential Test debut.Credit:Getty
“He[Hooper] should be running by Friday. It is only a small injury but he is too valuable a player to risk for this Test,” Jones said.
“We have a couple of other options we are looking at in terms of that No.7 position,but Fraser has trained really well and impressed in the three weeks I have seen him,and I think he can do a fantastic job for us.”
Leota will play his first game back after rupturing his Achilles tendon against the All Blacks in September,and spending nine months in post-surgery rehab. The big middle-rower conceded he thought his World Cup dream might have been in peril.
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Philip will also return to the Wallabies for the first time since suffering a torn ACL in the final training session before the Wallabies’ spring tour last year. The abrasive lock made it back for the Rebels after a rapid seven-month recovery.
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