There are eight changes to the Qantas Wallabies starting line-up which has been named today for test against Wales

There are eight changes to the Qantas Wallabies starting line-up which has been named today for
Saturday night’s opening Test of the Castrol EDGE Wales Tour in Brisbane.

Five new forwards and three new backs feature in the starting combination, from that beaten 9-6 by Scotland midweek in Newcastle.

The alterations in the pack sees the all-New South Wales Waratahs front-row return to duty after not being required to back up from last weekend’s Super Rugby round midweek, while the Queensland Reds second rower Rob Simmons is reinstated for the injured Sitaleki Timani, after making an impact off the bench in Newcastle.

The changes mean loosehead prop Benn Robinson makes his first appearance since the record breaking 59-16 win over France that bookended the 2010 Spring Tour, having been forced to miss all of last year’s Test programme due to a knee injury.

Fellow prop Sekope Kepu is also back after an injury enforced break, where an eye injury sustained in the Rugby World Cup semi-final ruled him out of the back-to-back Tests against Saturday night’s opponents which ended the 2011 season.

Tatafu Polota Nau, who lines up between them at hooker, is one of nine members of the starting XV who also featured during Australia’s 24-18 win over Wales in Cardiff last December.

The others are fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper, winger Digby Ioane, flyhalf Berrick Barnes, halfback Will Genia, flankers David Pocock and Scott Higginbotham, and locks Simmons and Nathan Sharpe.

The fifth alteration to the forward pack from that which started against Scotland is at the back of the scrum where Wycliff Palu returns at No 8, for what will be just his third Test outing since 2009 after an unfortunate run of injuries.

The return of Palu necessitates a positional change which will see the versatile Queensland Reds loose forward Scott Higginbotham move from No 8, where he featured prominently against Scotland, to the blindside flank.

The backline unit named brings Ashley-Cooper into fullback for Luke Morahan, Rob Horne at centre moving Anthony Fainga’a to the bench, while Pat McCabe also returns to the midfield, taking over from Mike Harris.

Harris, who was one of six to make his Test debut in the Hopetoun Cup defeat by Scotland, has been named on a bench which also includes Brumbies halfback Nic White.

White would become the 860th Wallaby if he is called on to make his Test debut.

The forward reserves named all now have Test experience, with loose forwards Michael Hooper and Dave Dennis having taken their maiden bows midweek. Dennis offers both back row and second row expertise, which has taken on added importance in light of the absence of the towering Timani.

Wales arrived in Australia as the reigning Six Nations champions, having completed its second Grand Slam of the European heavyweights in five years during this year’s competition.

The Welsh also finished fourth at last year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, but lost back-to-back Test matches to Australia in the space of 43 days at the end of last year, with the Qantas Wallabies’ 24-18 win in Cardiff at the start of December retaining the James Bevan Trophy for the third time in succession.

The Welsh team which beat France 16-9 in Cardiff in March at its most recent outing, to secure the country’s 11th Grand Slam (only England has won more, with 12), featured just four personnel changes from that which Australia defeated in December.

This year’s three-Test series is a first between the two nations, on what is the seventh visit to Australia by the Welsh national side.

The Wallabies have won eight of the nine Tests played between the two sides in Australia, with the sole Welsh victory coming in the country’s debut on Australian soil when Wales won 19-16 at Sydney in 1969.

Saturday night’s match will be the fifth played between the two nations in Brisbane.

The Qantas Wallabies team to play in the first Castrol EDGE Wales Tour Test match for the James Bevan Trophy at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday (kick-off: 8pm AEST) is:

15. Adam Ashley-Cooper (NSW Waratahs)
14. Joe Tomane (Brumbies)
13. Rob Horne (NSW Waratahs)
12. Pat McCabe (Brumbies)
11. Digby Ioane (Queensland Reds)
10. Berrick Barnes (NSW Waratahs)
9. Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
8. Wycliff Palu (NSW Waratahs)
7. David Pocock (captain, Western Force)
6. Scott Higginbotham (Queensland Reds)
5. Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
4. Rob Simmons (Queensland Reds)
3. Sekope Kepu (NSW Waratahs)
2. Tatafu Polota Nau (NSW Waratahs)
1. Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs)

Run on Reserves:

16. Stephen Moore (Brumbies)
17. Ben Alexander (Brumbies)
18. Dave Dennis (NSW Waratahs)
19. Michael Hooper (Brumbies)
20. Nic White (Brumbies)
21. Anthony Fainga’a (Queensland Reds)
22. Mike Harris (Queensland Reds)

Australia v Wales – Historical Notes

• This is the 33rd meeting between the two sides. Australia has won 21 of the previous Tests and Wales 10, with the 2006 clash at the Millennium Stadium drawn 29-29.
• Australia has beaten Wales at its last four attempts since 2009, which has established the Qantas Wallabies’ second longest winning streak against that nation, bettered only by the nine wins Australia achieved consecutively between 1991 and 2003.
• The opening Test of this year’s three-match series represents the first appearance by Wales on Australian soil for five years.
• Wales last appeared in Australia in the lead-up to the 2007 Rugby World Cup. In what proved a forerunner to what was to come later that year in France, Wales dropped the two matches 23-29 in Sydney and then 0-31 in Brisbane. The Welsh went on to miss qualification for the quarter-finals of that year’s Rugby World Cup, losing the decisive pool match to Fiji.
• Australia and Wales have played nine Test matches in Australia, with the Wallabies having prevailed eight times. The only Welsh win was a 19-16 win on debut at Sydney in 1969.
• Last year saw the two teams meet twice in the space of 43 days, with Australia winning the Bronze final at the Rugby World Cup in Auckland 21-18, before repeating the dose with a 24-18 success in the James Bevan Trophy Test at the start of December.
• The most tries scored by an Australian player in a single Test against Wales is two. This has been achieved by nine different players. Chris Latham, who scored five tries, has the most by any Wallaby against that country.
• Of the current players, Digby Ioane has three tries against Wales in Tests.
• Australian captain David Pocock scored tries against Wales in the 2009 and 2010 Tests in Cardiff. The tries represented the first two at Test level of Pocock’s career, and account for 50 % of the tries in his Test career to date, after he scored two in the Rugby World Cup Pool match against Russia last year.

Suncorp Stadium – Background Notes

• Saturday night’s match will be the 20th played by the Qantas Wallabies at what is now Suncorp Stadium. Australia has won 16 of the previous Tests and lost three, with the defeats all sustained against New Zealand by margins of seven, four and four points respectively.
• Wales has appeared just once previously at Suncorp Stadium and is still to register a point, having lost at the first attempt 0-31 in 2007.
• Suncorp Stadium is one of four Test venues that have been used in Brisbane. The others are Ballymore, the Brisbane Exhibition Ground and the Woollongabba Ground, which is better known as the city’s venue for cricket.
• Ballymore, which has traditionally been the home of rugby in Queensland and provides the training base for Super Rugby’s Queensland Reds, last hosted a Test in 2000 when Australia beat Argentina 53-6.
• Lang Park, as it was formerly known, was the scene of Australia’s record-breaking 76-0 demolition of England in 1998.
• The ground is also the home venue for the Brisbane Bronco’s club in the National Rugby League and the Queensland Roar in football’s A-League competition.
• The site of the ground was originally a cemetery, and then later a rubbish dump before being re-zoned as a sporting precinct. Lang Park became the headquarters for Queensland rugby league in 1957. It was named for the late Reverend John Dunmore Lang who had established the original cemetery on the site in 1840.
• Lang Park hosted its first rugby league match in 1958.
• Its first rugby union international came seven years later in 1965, when Australia beat South Africa 12-8, although it did not become a regular union venue until 31 years later when Tri-Nations matches were held at the ground due to its greater capacity than Ballymore.

• The redevelopment into the venue we see today occurred between 2001 and 2003, being completed in time for the stadium to play a major part in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.