Carlo Tizzano is set for a Wallabies debut as Schmidt names team to take on world champions
Rising star Carlo Tizzano has been granted a call up to the Test arena, as the Wallabies name team set to take on the world champions.
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THE Wallabies need fight against the Springboks and that’s what they’ll get in new debutant Carlo Tizzano, coach Joe Schmidt declared.
The stunning rise of Carlo Tizzano to the Test arena has been confirmed after he was named to start in the Wallabies No.7 jersey against South Africa this weekend.
As revealed by Code Sport earlier this week, the 24-year-old Western Force backrower will make his debut against a world class pack, and his task will be to disrupt the Springboks’ ruck ball like predecessors Fraser McReight, Michael Hooper, David Pocock and George Smith have done in the jersey in years past.
“His energy is relatively positive, more than abrasive but he fights for everything Carlo, and that’s what first caught our eye,” Schmidt said.
“He’s quite a dynamic competitor around the breakdown and I think in the context of losing Fraser, we needed someone who could bring elements of Fraser’s game but probably not all of them. That’s why we were picking Fraser before but it’s a great opportunity for Carlo.”
With McReight and Liam Wright injured, and Taniela Tupou withdrawing from this game due to a death in the family, there is some punch missing from a forward pack facing World Cup-winning monsters.
“Taniela is Taniela, he’s massively powerful,” Schmidt said.
“At the same time we’ve got to be able to build depth. One of the things we tried to do through July even at the risk of making 10 changes before Georgia and five before the Wales Test to try to grow that base.
“We’re in a very different stage of our development as compared to the Springbok and that’s always a risk. We’ve got about half as many caps and a quarter of those belong to James Slipper.
“From that perspective, we’re still going to keep trying to build and if we do lose someone, we’ve got to be able to best operate as a Wallaby squad and not be overly reliant on individual players.”
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Tizzano is one of two players set to make their international debuts at a sold-out Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday afternoon, with replacement backrower Luke Reimer named on the bench.
Marika Koroibete has been left out of the squad, with Schmidt opting for the same back three he used for the Wales Tests; Tom Wright at fullback, and Andrew Kellaway and Filipo Daugunu on the wings, with Dylan Pietch on the bench.
With Tupou out, Allan Alaalatoa will start at tighthead prop and captain the team against the world champions.
He forms a front row union with Isaac Kailea and hooker Matt Faessler.
Noah Lolesio will start in the No.10 jersey, partnering Jake Gordon in the halves, while Tate McDermott and rookie Tom Lynagh will come off the bench.
Lolesio goes head-to-head with Springboks boom youngster Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who is making his first start in Test rugby after four impressive performances off the bench.
South Africa have a poor record in Australia despite their back-to-back World Cup wins, but Boks halfback Cobus Reinach said they would not overlook the Wallabies this time.
“Sometimes in the last few years, we would look past Australia because we had maybe New Zealand after and we didn’t prepare as well as we should have because there were more games to come and tougher games to come, but we’re not doing that anymore,” Reinach said.
“But now, we focus just on what’s coming this weekend and we don’t care about next weekend and how we going to prep for that fixture, we are just focusing on the here and now and what we need to do as a team to get the win.”
Originally published as Carlo Tizzano is set for a Wallabies debut as Schmidt names team to take on world champions