Australia have named a full strength Test line-up for Sunday's opening World Cup match against Romania in Belfast, making only one change from the team that beat New Zealand 28-7 in the final Tri-Nations game in Sydney.
That alteration heralds the return of brilliant second row, and captain, John Eales following a season long absence through injury. `Nobody' (Eales nickname given to him because nobody is perfect) suffered shoulder damage while weight training five days before the start of the season, a problem which necessitated shoulder reconstruction.
Eales failed to play a match in the Super 12 or the domestic Test encounters and his rehabilitation on the playing field has been limited to a game for the Australian Barbarians against Fiji and a couple of matches for Queensland in the National Ricoh Championship last month.
His last Test match was at Twickenham in 1998 when he kicked four penalties in Australia's 12-11 victory over England. He replaces Mark Connors, Australia's sole try scorer in their victory over the All Blacks in Sydney.
Elsewhere the team remains the same with Rod Kafer continuing at out-half and Jason Little on the left wing. Australian coach Rod Macqueen decided to field ostensibly a Test side, given one or two selections, as his players have not played for five or six weeks. "It is important that we get things right at the start.
"The guys haven't played for quite a while, five or six weeks, so they will be a little bit rusty. I have seen a little bit of footage of the Romanians in their game against Scotland. They are very strong individually: collectively they let themselves down a bit at times. They are not an easy side to play against.
"We played against them in the World Cup in South Africa in 1995 and they gave us a lot of trouble early on. We will have to play well as a team. We won't underestimate them but we will be concentrating on our own game." To this end Macqueen confirmed that the emphasis since arriving in Ireland has been on teamwork and continuity.
He also confirmed that he would like to play some of Sunday's replacements. "We are going to try and give Tiaan Strauss half a game at open-side but that will depend on how things go in the match. He hasn't played there for quite a while so he could do with some action. Seven is certainly an area in which we lack a little cover, although there are some very good young and upcoming players back home: they are not quite ready for this level.
"Owen Finegan is another to whom we would like to give some time. He missed a lot of the season and then got a bang (against New Zealand) and missed out on playing for a couple of games. We would like to give them as much game time as possible but that will be linked to how we go on Sunday."
Australia - M Burke; B Tune, D Herbert, T Horan, J Little; R Kafer, G Gregan; R Harry, P Kearns, A Blades; J Eales (capt), D Giffin; M Cockbain, T Kefu, D Wilson (capt). Replacements: J Roff, N Grey, C Whitaker, T Strauss, O Finegan, P Noriega, J Paul.
