{"id":929619,"date":"2026-10-15T23:44:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929619\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T23:44:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:44:37","slug":"rugby-league-world-cup-2026-news-australia-kangaroos-team-changes-with-mitchell-moses-injury-tom-dearden-and-sam-walker-in-halves-james-tedesco-in-for-reece-walsh-at-fullback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929619\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby League World Cup 2026 news, Australia Kangaroos team changes with Mitchell Moses injury, Tom Dearden and Sam Walker in halves, James Tedesco in for Reece Walsh at fullback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kangaroos<\/a> coach Kevin Walters<\/a> has already locked in several team changes for Australia\u2019s second World Cup<\/a> game despite a thrilling victory over New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Halfback Mitchell Moses<\/a> suffered a leg injury and lasted only a minute or two into the second half before limping off the field.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mitchell Moses suffered an apparent calf injury.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was replaced by Tom Dearden<\/a>, who Walters later confirmed will wear the No.6 jumper against Fiji next Sunday.<\/p>\n

It means Cameron Munster<\/a> will drop out of the side, as will the injured Moses with Sam Walker<\/a> already confirmed to make his Kangaroos debut in the No.7.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Walker will) play next week. We\u2019ll put him alongside Tom who will play five-eighth,\u201d Walters said after their 24-22 victory in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Dearden) was good when he came on and once he settled into the rhythm of the game. It\u2019s hard when you come off the bench like that in the halfback position and have to just get straight into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought once he was settled, he showed his class.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting for (Walker and Dearden). They\u2019ll both get their chance to wear the green and gold together. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve played together as a halves combo so that\u2019ll be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker and Dearden are considered Queensland\u2019s next long-term halves pairing, but will struggle to both make the Kangaroos team going forward once Nathan Cleary is back on his feet.<\/p>\n

Walkers has also locked in a change at fullback for game two, with Roosters champion James Tedesco to replace Reece Walsh in the No.1 jumper next Sunday.<\/p>\n

Walters says he wanted to give the NRL grand final players a rest for game one, meaning Knights centre Bradman Best will also come into calculations.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames will be fullback next week. I thought this week for those guys that played in the grand final, it\u2019s been a big few weeks,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought what was best for Australia was that they would have a spell then they could enjoy getting the Australian jersey back on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh was electric, but won\u2019t play next week.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Best and David Fifitia were the unused bench players in Thursday night\u2019s game, but Walters said earlier this week he plans to give every squad member time on the park during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

As for Moses, Walters admitted his leg injury \u201cwasn\u2019t too good\u201d but he will have scans to determine the severity.<\/p>\n

If Moses is ruled out of the remainder of the tournament, Walters plans to elevate Raiders five-eighth Ethan Strange from a shadow player to the squad proper, meaning he would play later in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Possible Kangaroos team vs Fiji<\/p>\n

1. James Tedesco 2. Jack Bostock 3. Latrell Mitchell 4. Bradman Best 5. Tom Trbojevic 6. Tom Dearden 7. Sam Walker 8. Patrick Carrigan 9. Harry Grant 10. Tino Fa\u2019asuamaleaui 11. Jacob Preston 12. Liam Martin 13. Isaah Yeo 14. Ethan Strange 15. David Fifita 16. Cameron Murray 17. Keaon Koloamatangi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters has already locked in several team changes for Australia\u2019s second World Cup game despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-929619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929619","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=929619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}