{"id":273862,"date":"2025-11-20T16:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273862\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:24:12","slug":"gordon-and-pietsch-return-in-schmidts-last-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273862\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon and Pietsch return in Schmidt’s last game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has made five changes, including a couple of positional switches, to his starting line-up to take on France in Paris on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In what is Schmidt\u2019s final match in charge of the Wallabies, he is also set to blood young Queensland Reds scrum-half Kalani Thomas after he was named amongst the replacements for this eagerly anticipated Autumn Nations Series clash.<\/p>\n

After their heavy 46-19 defeat against Ireland in Dublin last weekend, Australia<\/a> have been boosted by the return from injury of Carter Gordon<\/a> (quad) and Dylan Pietsch<\/a> (vertigo).<\/p>\n

Gordon replaces James O\u2019Connor at fly-half while Pietsch comes in for Filipo Daugunu on the wing. Pietsch will line up on the left wing while Harry Potter, who wore the number 11 jersey against Ireland, shifts to the other wing.<\/p>\n

Second start for Carter Gordon<\/p>\n

Gordon will makes his second start of the Wallabies\u2019 end-of-year tour \u2013 after also wearing the number 10 jersey in the loss to Italy in Udine \u2013 and will combine with his namesake Jake Gordon as the starting half-backs.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tane Edmed has been named on the bench as fly-half Gordon\u2019s back-up for the clash at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n

The rest of the backline sees Max Jorgensen retaining his spot at full-back while Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Len Ikitau continue as the starting midfield combination.<\/p>\n

It will be a momentous occasion for Ikitau and Angus Bell, who is the starting loosehead prop, as both players will run out for their 50th appearances for the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Snubbed fly-half reveals the two reasons he was dropped by Wallabies<\/a><\/p>\n

Bell is joined in the front-row by Taniela Tupou (tighthead prop) and Billy Pollard (hooker), who have replaced Allan Alaalatoa and Matt Faessler respectively, while Nick Frost also returns to the starting line-up to pack down in the second-row alongside Jeremy Williams.<\/p>\n

Frost takes over from Tom Hooper, who shifts to the blindside flank where he replaces Rob Valetini, and he is joined in the back-row by captain Harry Wilson (number eight) and Fraser McReight (openside flank).<\/p>\n

Schmidt has once again opted for a traditional five\/three split on his bench with Faessler, Alaalatoa, Valetini, Aidan Ross and Carlo Tizzano named as the back-up forwards, while Thomas, Edmed and are the backline reinforcements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to freshen things up during the week after what\u2019s been a dense and challenging tour so far,\u201d said Schmidt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players have looked to prepare well and they\u2019re eager to finish their season with a positive performance against one of the world\u2019s best teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallabies team to face France<\/p>\n

Australia: 15 Max Jorgensen, 14 Harry Potter, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Carter Gordon, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Nick Frost, 4 Jeremy Williams, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Matt Faessler, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Rob Valetini, 20 Carlo Tizzano, 21 Kalani Thomas, 22 Tane Edmed, 23 Filipo Daugunu<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, November 22
Venue: Stade de France, Saint-Denis
Kick-off: 21:10 local (20:10 GMT, 07:10 AEDT, Sunday November 23)
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)
Assistant referees: : Andrew Brace (IRFU), Craig Evans (WRU)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
FPRO: Mike Adamson (SRU)<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Exclusive: Eddie Jones blasts \u2018absurd\u2019 TMO interventions, cards and the \u2018big issue\u2019 I have with World Rugby\u2019s \u2018ridiculous notion\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has made five changes, including a couple of positional switches, to his starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[428,819,348,3482,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-273862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-france","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273862","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=273862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}