Wallabies coach Les Kiss has backed veteran Kurtley Beale to compete as an inside centre on the spring tour, opening the door to a potential Test comeback after a five-year absence.
Kiss said he would wait until training next week before assessing Carter Gordon’s readiness to play in next Sunday’s clash with England at Twickenham, with the Reds playmaker on the brink of returning from a fractured fibula suffered against Argentina in September.
Beale was a shock inclusion in the Wallabies spring tour squad after an absence of five years from Test rugby, with the 37-year-old in line to play in November having last represented Australia against Wales in a one-point defeat at Cardiff in 2021.
Kiss said Beale was a genuine hope of Test inclusion.
“No-one comes in just to fill a void,” he said. “We just want to make sure it works and he’s in there to perform. I have spoken to him on this. I like the fact that we’ve given the younger guys a chance to grow, without the experience sitting on their shoulder.
“We always said we’d lean back into the experience when we wanted to, but he’s coming in to predominantly drive that second five-eighth position, at 12.
“He can flex into 15 and 10 in our sessions and how we build our game going forward, so we just need him in that space, and he’ll bring his experience in his way.”
Ahead of matches against England, Scotland and Wales Kiss is focused on giving the squad’s playmakers of Gordon, Ben Donaldson and Declan Meredith a chance to “own” their position and drive the team.
“I’m actually empowering them to say go for it and do it and have permission to just lead this team,” Kiss said.
Kiss will use training in London next week to determine Gordon’s fitness to face England, after the five-eighth was involved in sessions this week in Sydney.
“We just need to get a feel for it [Gordon’s fitness] when we hit the ground, particularly on Monday and the Tuesday session; we’ll just be a little bit more informed where we take that,” Kiss said.
“I would say the Tuesday session might just give us a few clues where we go [at five-eighth]. We may not know our full team. Usually, I try to name the team that day.”
The Wallabies coach was more positive about the fitness of breakaway Tom Hooper, saying scans “have cleared everything” after Hooper suffered a shoulder injury while playing for Exeter against Bristol.
There were initial fears Hooper could have aggravated the shoulder injury he sustained in the Test against Ireland in July, but Kiss said he will “join the camp in a good way” with full movement returning.
A notable omission from the Wallabies’ squad was in-form winger Dylan Pietsch, who scored two tries for Australia A against the USA last Sunday in Nashville.
Kiss said the Western Force winger had been considered after recovering from a foot injury, but he also wanted to provide more cover for Tom Wright at fullback with James Ramm. Kiss also confirmed France-based Tom Banks was discussed by the coaching staff.
“One thing that has happened when an injury happens, it’s becoming really difficult to move the person that comes in, and they’ve been performing either in training or playing,” he said.
“And how do we get those blokes back in? It’s more difficult to get back in, and that’s what it should be – more competitive. Now, you know, Dylan’s sitting right here in that selection frame for sure...
“We just wanted to get another 15 in play and look at another 15, so we looked at what our options there with Jock [Campbell] moving to Japan and in this period just not available.
“We looked at [Western Force’s] Mac Grealy, who we know enough about, [Montpellier’s] Tom Banks we had a look at, and obviously James Ramm.”
England are ranked fifth in the world and have lost three of their past five games. Kiss said England were moving to a more attack-based game, giving the Wallabies a significant challenge as a tour opener at Twickenham.
“There’s no better place in rugby in a lot of ways [than Twickenham] in terms of those wonderful battles between Australia and England,” he said.
“The game that they’re playing, it certainly has the tenets of set piece and kicking are central, but you can see ... they’re going to have an attacking edge to them as well.
“So there are real challenges that we know that are ahead of us, but that’s what we need. We need that now. This is the last window before we close out into what will become a massive year for every country.”
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