England have gambled on the form and fitness of David Rees who has been named in their Test side for Saturday's Cook Cup match against Australia even though he has not played a game for more than two months. The 24-year-old Sale wing has been preferred to the uncapped Leon Lloyd who made an auspicious entry into the England team with a brace of tries in last weekend's 39-14 victory over Queensland.
In a bold statement of intent, England have chosen Newcastle's Jonny Wilkinson at out-half, the position he occupied when the Wallabies inflicted a 76-0 thrashing on Clive Woodward's side in Brisbane a year ago. Wilkinson will carry an awesome responsibility into the cauldron of the 110,000-seat Olympic Stadium. He has played only a handful of games in the number 10 shirt in the past season.
Meanwhile, the Wallabies have wielded the axe, making five changes, one of them positional, from the side that began the Test against Ireland in Perth last Saturday. Tim Horan switches from the centre to out-half where he played for the last 20 minutes of the Ireland game while the wing Ben Tune, the lock John Welborn, the centre Nathan Grey and the prop Dan Crowley have all been reintroduced into the line-up.
Their out-half Nathan Spooner was compelled to stand down on medical advice after he took a couple of heavy knocks to the head in Perth, Jason Little has been relegated to the bench and the lock Tom Bowman and the prop Glenn Panoho have been dropped.
None of the changes can be said to have weakened the Australian team, though the fresh combinations at half-back, centre and in the second row may take a little time to settle down. Horan's intuitive footballing skills will help him come to terms with his relative lack of experience at number 10, Grey is one of the most uncompromising tacklers in the business and Crowley, who came on as a replacement in Perth, will bring immense experience to the front row.
"We made the changes in order to meet the specific challenges of playing England," explained their coach Rod McQueen, who believes Australia will lose if they repeat the errors they committed against Ireland. "Horan has experience at fly-half and he played well in that role against the Irish. Grey is an enthusiastic player who performed strongly in this season's Super 12 and Welborn was also very impressive in the Super 12."
AUSTRALIA: Latham (Queensland); Tune (Queensland), Herbert (Queensland), Grey (New South Wales), Roff (Australian Capital Territories); Horan (Queensland), Gregan (ACT); Crowley (Queensland), Paul (ACT), Noriega (ACT), Giffin (ACT), Welborn (NSW), Cockbain (Queensland), Wilson (Queensland, capt), Kefu (Queensland). Replacements: Little (Queensland), Burke (NSW), Whitaker (NSW), Strauss (NSW), Williams (ACT), Panoho (Queensland), Kearns (NSW).
ENGLAND: Perry (Bath); Rees (Sale), Guscott (Bath), Catt (Bath), Luger (Saracens); Wilkinson (Newcastle), Bracken (Saracens); Leonard (Harlequins), Cockerill (Leicester), Garforth (Leicester), Johnson (Leicester, capt), Rodber (Northampton), Hill (Saracens), Back (Leicester), Corry (Leicester). Replacements: Beal (Northampton), De Glanville (Bath), Dawson (Northampton), Clarke (Richmond), Grewcock (Saracens), Ubogu (Bath), Greening (Sale).
