revealed<\/a> on Wednesday that Campbell had been given first crack by Joe Schmidt for the Nations Championship clash.<\/p>\nSchmidt will confirm the Wallabies\u2019 team on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Campbell\u2019s selection comes after his best season yet in Super Rugby.<\/p>\n
With his future up in the air \u2013 Campbell has been offered a modest contract to stay with the Reds, but is yet to put pen to paper \u2013 the 31-year-old was named in Super Rugby\u2019s team of the year.<\/p>\n
A silky fullback, Campbell surprised many this year with his turn of pace and ability to come up with the big play at the right time.<\/p>\n
He first reemerged on the selectors\u2019 radar in March when he came up with a linebreak on his own line against the Brumbies in the final seconds, which sealed a stunning comeback in Canberra.<\/p>\n
Then he broke Moana Pasifika\u2019s hearts in the penultimate game of the season as he scored in the last minute to seal an important victory in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had a really good season,\u201d Schmidt said when he announced his wider squad late last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis kicking out of hand has been very strong, he\u2019s been taking further kicking responsibilities that we won\u2019t expect from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s shown a real turn of foot; I thought in round three against the Brumbies when he rounded them and got into space, but that wasn\u2019t the only time. I think he\u2019s been sharp. He\u2019s very good and very committed in the air.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added that Campbell\u2019s work-rate was off the charts.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of his stats about his coverage in a game are exceptional, and how hard he works off the ball… that\u2019s the sort of guy we need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need people who are going to work really hard whether they\u2019re on the ball or off the ball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Campbell described his return to the wider squad last month as a \u201cfirst-day-of-school type of vibe\u201d.<\/p>\n
After receiving the dreaded phone call countless times in recent years, which usually comes with bad news from the national coach, Campbell said he was chuffed to be back in the mix after receiving the email confirming he had been chosen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the phone down and was praying it didn\u2019t ring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It never did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been out for a while, so it was nice to get the email and not get shot, as we call it these days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good moment for my family, my parents, who always supported me a lot over the past four years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s going to play in front of more than 40,000 at the Sydney Football Stadium.<\/p>\n
Campbell said he never gave up hope that his days in gold were over.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever beyond reach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe\u2019s a good communicator, always gave good feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love footy, so it wasn\u2019t hard to keep turning up at the Reds \u2013 it\u2019s not like it\u2019s a burden to play footy, I love my job and it\u2019s a bonus I\u2019m here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Having been recalled to the Wallabies, Campbell was asked whether he dared to dream about featuring in next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course. A rugby World Cup year at home, as a kid you dream of stuff like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut obviously there\u2019s a long way to go, starting with the three weeks now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as that\u2019s a dream, I\u2019ve got to focus on what\u2019s coming up now and these three games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as reported on Wednesday, Ryan Lonergan and Carter Gordon will form a new halves pairing, with Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to continue their midfield partnership.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Williams and Josh Canham are poised to form the second-row pairing, with Harry Wilson spearheading the back-row.<\/p>\n
Josh Nasser is also set to start at hooker, with Brandon Paenga-Amosa to provide cover from the bench.<\/p>\n
There will be one new face on the bench, with Lachie Shaw \u2013 the excellent Brumbies lock \u2013 expected to be called up for the first time and join Exeter\u2019s Tom Hooper on the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He might not have a home for next season yet, but Jock Campbell\u2019s 1,316 day Test exile is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54046,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-528594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-irish-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}