Australia head coach Eddie Jones has made a late change to his match-day squad to face Portugal in Pool C in Saint-Étienne on Sunday, with centre Samu Kerevi (pictured, right) replacing Carter Gordon on the bench for a match in which prop James Slipper will become the Wallaby with the most Rugby World Cup appearances.
1 Angus Bell
2 David Porecki (c)
3 James Slipper
4 Nick Frost
5 Richard Arnold
6 Tom Hooper
7 Fraser McReight
8 Rob Valetini
9 Tate McDermott
10 Ben Donaldson
11 Marika Koroibete
12 Lalakai Foketi
13 Izaia Perese
14 Mark Nawaqanitawase
15 Andrew Kellaway
Replacements:
16 Matt Faessler
17 Blake Schoupp
18 Pone Fa’amausili
19 Robert Leota
20 Josh Kemeny
21 Issak Fines-Leleiwasa
22 Samu Kerevi
23 Suli Vunivalu
*Carter Gordon withdrawn from original eight replacements on match day.
- Fraser McReight, Izaia Perese and Lalakai Foketi are the three personnel changes made by Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones to his starting XV from the team that lost to Wales on Sunday, 24 September.
-
James Slipper will become Australia’s most capped Rugby World Cup player in his 21st match, surpassing George Gregan’s 16-year-old record.
-
In his 134th test, he is Australia’s second-most capped player behind George Gregan (139), and equal with Wales and British and Irish Lions international Gethin Jenkins as the most-capped prop in test history.
-
Izaia Perese will make his Rugby World Cup debut, partnering his Waratahs team-mate Lalakai Foketi in the centres for the first time in a test match. This game will also be his starting debut, after earning five caps off the bench between 2021 and 2023, and averaging 18 minutes of game-time.
- Foketi earns his first start since the Wallabies warm-up test against France, the only time in his short eight-test career he has played the full 80 minutes. He and Perese started alongside each other in nine of the Waratahs' 14 Super Rugby games this year.
-
This forms a more familiar Waratahs spine to Australia’s attack, with the Ben Donaldson/Foketi/Perese combination at fly-half, inside and outside-centre starting six Super Rugby matches this year, and 15 times since the start of 2021.
