Australia have lost five of their last six Tests, including defeats by England and Italy in their two most recent encounters.<\/p>\n
But Wallaby boss Joe Schmidt, up against former side Ireland for the final time as Australia coach, now hopes the 35-year-old O\u2019Connor, who orchestrated a superb win over world champions South Africa at Ellis Park in August, can turn the tide at Lansdowne Road.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor and Len Ikitau, recalled at centre, both missed the 25-7 loss to England at Twickenham on November 1 and the 26-19 defeat by Italy in Udine last weekend.<\/p>\n
The pair were absent from the Twickenham clash as their English clubs were not obliged to release them for a match taking place outside World Rugby\u2019s designated international window.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor, one of five fly-halves selected by Australia this year, replaces Carter Gordon, who suffered quad tightness against Italy.<\/p>\n
Tane Edmed, replaced by Gordon after his own poor performance against England, is again on the bench.<\/p>\n
Ikitau, meanwhile, resumes his centre partnership with Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii for the 12th time in the Wallabies\u2019 last 16 Tests.<\/p>\n
Schmidt, looking to rejuvenate the Wallabies\u2019 attack as they seek to nail down a top-six ranking spot which in the upcoming draw for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, has selected 21-year-old Max Jorgensen at full-back and wing Filipo Daugunu to join Harry Potter in the back three.<\/p>\n
England dominate Wallabies at Twickenham | 02:20<\/p>\n
Experienced prop Allan Alaalatoa returns to the starting 15, joining hooker Matt Faessler and Angus Bell in the front row.<\/p>\n
In a further change to the pack, Tom Hooper moves to lock with Rob Valetini starting at blindside flanker in a back row featuring Fraser McReight and skipper Harry Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough schedule but we\u2019ve tried to embrace that this week and tried to freshen up at the same time,\u201d said Schmidt after announcing his side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of wear and tear, to be honest, and James, he just brings a bit of freshness.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (O\u2019Connor) was away on holiday in Morocco, so he\u2019s a little bit fresher. And we\u2019re hoping that that kind of gives us a bit of a bounce into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another opportunity to really challenge ourselves against one of the top teams in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia (15-1) Max Jorgensen; Filipo Daugunu Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Harry Potter; James O\u2019Connor, Jake Gordon; Harry Wilson (capt), Fraser McReight, Rob Valetini; Tom Hooper, Jeremy Williams; Allan Alaalatoa, Matt Faessler, Angus Bell Replacements: Billy Pollard, Tom Robertson, Zane Nonggorr, Nick Frost, Carlo Tizzano, Ryan Lonergan, Tane Edmed, Andrew Kellaway <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James O\u2019Connor has been summoned to revive Australia\u2019s faltering Autumn Nations Series campaign, with the veteran fly-half given…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-282642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}