{"id":66531,"date":"2025-08-14T13:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/66531\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T13:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:59:07","slug":"joe-schmidt-takes-big-james-oconnor-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/66531\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Schmidt takes big James O’Connor risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

James O\u2019Connor will make his first Test appearance since 2022 after being named in the Wallabies squad to take on the Springboks in the Rugby Championship opener.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old has selected to start Saturday\u2019s Test in Johannesburg and will feature at fly-half, and will likely be tasked with playing the whole 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor is the only out-and-out number 10 in the squad, with Ben Donaldson suffering an injury in training on Thursday to rule him out of the clash.<\/p>\n

Nic White will therefore provide cover at pivot should his playmaking team-mate go down injured and will also be the back-up goal-kicker.<\/p>\n

That is the biggest surprise in Joe Schmidt\u2019s<\/a> 23 with the rest of the backline unchanged from the one that impressively defeated the British and Irish Lions in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Len Ikitau and Joseph Suaalii continue at centre while Tom Wright, Max Jorgensen and Dylan Pietsch once again combine in the Wallabies<\/a> back three.<\/p>\n

No changes to the pack<\/p>\n

Up front, they have not made any alterations as Harry Wilson captains from number eight and he is joined in the loose trio by Fraser McReight and Tom Hooper.<\/p>\n

Will Skelton continues at lock and he combines with Nick Frost in a well-balanced engine room as they look to combat the Springboks\u2019<\/a> lineout and maul.<\/p>\n

It is also a big job for the front-row of Taniela Tupou, Billy Pollard and James Slipper, who will have the difficult challenge of negating South Africa\u2019s scrummaging threat in the Rugby Championship clash.<\/p>\n

Springboks team: Siya Kolisi in historic positional switch as Rassie Erasmus makes huge calls at half-back against Wallabies<\/a><\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus \u2018changed mind\u2019 over Siya Kolisi while Springboks boss makes \u2018Bomb Squad\u2019 tease ahead of Wallabies announcement<\/a><\/p>\n

With the set-piece and physical battle absolutely crucial, the Wallabies have gone for a 6-2 split on the bench, with Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Angus Bell, Zane Nonggorr, Jeremy Williams, Langi Gleeson and Nick Champion de Crespigny the forward replacements.<\/p>\n

Rob Valetini has not recovered in time from his injury to take his place in the squad, while Donaldson\u2019s absence means there is no reserve fly-half.<\/p>\n

Andrew Kellaway, who can play either full-back or wing, is in the 23 shirt with Tate McDermott the only other back on the bench.<\/p>\n

They could therefore force the Boks, who have gone for a 5-3 split this weekend, into making a late change. Head coach Rassie Erasmus suggested that they may alter their tactics after Australia\u2019s team announcement and go with a 6-2 should Schmidt opt for a forward-heavy set of replacements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group has had a good week of preparation, adjusting pretty well to the time zone and the altitude well here in Johannesburg,\u201d the Wallabies head coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not many bigger Tests than playing South Africa on their home turf and we know we\u2019re going to need to be at our best on Saturday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallabies team to face the Springboks<\/p>\n

Wallabies: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 James O\u2019Connor, 9 Nic White, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 James Slipper
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Angus Bell, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 22 Tate McDermott, 23 Andrew Kellaway<\/p>\n

Date: Saturday, August 16
Venue: Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg
Kick-off: 17:10 local (16:10 BST, 15:10 GMT)
Referee: Ben O\u2019Keeffe (NZR)
Assistant referees: James Doleman (NZR), Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
TMO: Tual Trainini (FFR)
FPRO: Richard Kelly (NZR)<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks great: Springboks in Joburg a bigger challenge than Eden Park<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James O\u2019Connor will make his first Test appearance since 2022 after being named in the Wallabies squad to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[428,348,3482,15457,50,5903,15394,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-66531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-joe-schmidt","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-championship","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66531","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=66531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}