South Africa vs. Australia: Wallabies team for Rugby Championship Test announced

For the second time in two days, Australia coach Joe Schmidt has been forced to reshuffle his reserves bench after his replacement utility back Ben Donaldson was injured in a training mishap and ruled out of Saturday’s Rugby Championship opener.

Bizarrely, Schmidt originally named backrower Nick Champion de Crespigny as Donaldson’s replacement but had a change of heart overnight and has instead called up Edmed, a specialist five-eighth who was added to the squad as cover for the injured Tom Lynagh.

Wallabies captain Harry Wilson confirmed the change, saying: “Obviously Donno went down real last minute of training on Thursday afternoon, which wasn’t ideal after the team being announced internally.

“We had a bit of a situation there. Obviously we named Crep’ (Champion de Crespigny), but the coaches had a few meetings overnight and again this morning to, I guess, nut out who would be the best replacement for Donno.

“And decided to put in Tane, which he’s really excited about.”

While Edmed has only played three minutes of Test rugby after being knocked out on his debut against Ireland last year, he was picked by Schmidt for the end of season tour to Europe with an eye to the future.

He was also selected in the training squad for Australia’s one-off Test against Fiji before losing his spot to the more experienced O’Connor for the recent series against the British & Irish Lions.

With 35-year-old O’Connor not expected to play a full 80 minutes against the world champion Springboks at the high altitude Ellis Park stadium, Edmed is now almost certain to be needed at some stage.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him. He’s been around the group now for a little while and what he’s putting on the training park has been first class,” Wilson said.

“We really enjoy having him around the group and he’s training consistently well and that should give him a lot more confidence to go out there and do the job.”

With Edmed coming in at the expense of de Crespigny, the Wallabies will revert to a traditional 5-3 (forwards-backs) bench against the Springboks, who also made a late change to their substitutes when prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels withdrew and Boan Venter took his place.

“It honestly doesn’t really change too much for us,” Wilson said.

“Obviously, Donno was there in the team before he went down so we were sort of preparing for 5-3 and then once the injury it was a potential for 6-2 so it wasn’t likely prepared all week with a 6- 2.”

Wilson did not say whether Donaldson would be fit to play in the second Test in Cape Town a week later.

“It’s all still to be decided,” he said. “I don’t think it is too bad, but it’s obviously not good enough for this weekend.”

JOC RETURN BECOMES WALLABIES RESCUE MISSION

James O’Connor’s long awaited return to the Wallabies is quickly turning into a rugby rescue mission after a last-minute training mishap threw the Australian team’s plan to play

South Africa into chaos.

While the leaked news of O’Connor’s comeback after more than three years on the outer was confirmed when he was named as the starting five-eighth, the biggest surprise was that there was no back up playmaker included on the team sheet.

It turned out Ben Donaldson had originally been selected on the bench to fulfil that important role, just as he had in each of the three recent Tests against the British & Irish Lions, but was withdrawn after he injured himself at the end of Thursday’s penultimate training session in Johannesburg.

“In the second last play of training, Donno kicked a ball and pulled up short,” Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt told reporters in a late night hook up.

“We don’t know what the extent of the injury is. We’ve only been back from training for about an hour. He will get a scan though so we’ll have a definitive picture because we need to know for next week as well, whether we need more cover.

“At the same time, we’re still trying to probably work out what we do to best get that coverage, as you asked.”

The inclusion of O’Connor was the only change to the Wallabies’ run-on side squad that overpowered the Lions 22-12 at Accor Stadium two weeks ago to avoid a first cleansweep in 121 years after dropping the first two games.

O’Connor replaces Tom Lynagh, who was concussed after being elbowed in the head by Welsh hooker Dan Sheehan in the third and final Test against the British & Irish Lions.

Sheehan copped a four-game ban for foul play while Lynagh was ruled out of Australia’s two-match trip to South Africa.

With Donaldson unavailable, Schmidt was forced to quickly rearrange his bench, but said it could be changed again before Saturday night’s kick off. Schmidt’s plan had been to start with O’Connor then replace him at halftime with Donaldson but the injury threw that out the window, so he named backrower Nick Champion de Crespigny as an extra reserve, meaning Australia has only two backs on the bench, Tate McDermott and Andrew Kellaway.

But that leaves no specialist cover in the playmaking role, which presents a huge risk if O’Connor, 35, doesn’t last the full 80 minutes at Ellis Park, the highest altitude stadium in international rugby.

Schmidt said further changes could be made after Friday’s captain’s run with five-eighth Tane Edmed now under consideration for inclusion.

“We’re still trying to probably work out what we do to best get that coverage,” Schmidt said.

“(Halfback) Nic White can maybe cover 10 and is astute enough to do so. Andrew Kellaway has the skill set to cover 10. But it does leave us a little bit light.

“That’s something that we’re going to look at the captain’s run and just see what best fits for us. Because it’s all it’s all happened just in a very short space of time.

“ (Edmed) is in consideration for sure. Tane is one of the options. Hunter Paisami played 10 until in the under 20s and then shifted to 12, plus gives us really good midfield cover. So there’s a few options that we’re just going to try to get our best coverage and best confidence from.”

There were no other changes on the bench with powerhouse blindside flanker Rob Valetini once again ruled out with injury that restricted him to just 40 minutes on the field in the entire Lions series. It is hoped he will be available for the second match against the Springboks in Cape Town next weekend.

Schmidt has been reluctant to call on O’Connor, a former teenage prodigy who was regarded as one of the biggest waste of talents in Australian rugby, but he’s now holding the key to Australia’s chances of beating the world champions.

The reformed wild child has turned his life around by cleaning up his act and playing a mature brand of rugby.

Although he was mostly used off the bench, O’Connor was instrumental in helping the Crusaders win this year’s Super Rugby title, leading to calls for his return.

Overlooked for the Australian squad for the warm-up match against Fiji, he was called up for the Lions’ series when Noah Lolesio went down.

He wasn’t selected for any of the Lions’ Tests but gets his chance with Lynagh pulling out.