{"id":260701,"date":"2025-11-13T15:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/260701\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:49:11","slug":"ireland-v-australia-james-oconnor-recalled-by-wallabies-for-dublin-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/260701\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland v Australia: James O’Connor recalled by Wallabies for Dublin Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

James O’Connor will play his first Test in the northern hemisphere in four years after being recalled by Australia to face Ireland in Dublin on Saturday. <\/p>\n

The 35-year-old will start at fly-half for the Wallabies under Joe Schmidt, who will coach against the side he led to three Six Nations title as the predecessor to current Irish head coach, Andy Farrell.<\/p>\n

Australia have lost five of their last six matches and their two autumn Tests with England and Italy have both ended in defeat. <\/p>\n

Leicester Tigers’ O’Connor,<\/a> who made his first Australia appearance in three years against the British and Irish Lions in July, will partner Jake Gordon at half-back after missing the Wallabies’ three most recent games with Japan, England and Italy. <\/p>\n

Len Ikitau returns to join Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii at centre, while Harry Potter retains his place on the wing and will start in the back three alongside Filipo Daugunu and Max Jorgensen. <\/p>\n

Ulster-bound prop Angus Bell is named in the front row alongside Matt Faessler and the returning Allan Alaalatoa.<\/p>\n

Tom Hooper moves from the back row to lock, as Rob Valetini joins Fraser McReight and captain Harry Wilson in the pack. <\/p>\n

“It’s been a tough schedule but we’ve tried to embrace that this week and tried to freshen up at the same time,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

“It’s another opportunity this Saturday to really challenge ourselves against one of the top teams in the world.”<\/p>\n

Australia: M Jorgensen; F Daugunu; JA Suaalii, L Ikitau; H Potter; J O’Connor, J Gordon; A Bell, M Faessler, A Alaalatoa; J Williams, T Hooper; R Valetini, F McReight, H Wilson (capt)<\/p>\n

Replacements: B Pollard, T Robertson, Z Nonggorr, N Frost, C Tizzano, R Lonergan, T Edmed, A Kellaway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James O’Connor will play his first Test in the northern hemisphere in four years after being recalled by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-260701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}