Berrick Barnes has been named at fly-half for Australia‘s clash against New Zealand in Saturday’s opening game of the Rugby Championship while Quade Cooper has been left out of the squad all together.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans named his side this morning which sees David Pocock captaining the side with Anthony Faingaa coming in for the injured Pat McCabe at inside centre.
Cooper has only played five Super Rugby games and some club matches in Brisbane since returning from knee surgery after getting injured in last year’s World Cup while Barnes enjoyed a tremendous end of season culminating by a man-of-the-match performance against Wales in June.
Australia’s team: Kurtley Beale; Adam Ashley-Cooper, Rob Horne, Anthony Faingaa, Digby Ioane; Berrick Barnes, Will Genia; Benn Robinson, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Sekope Kepu; Sitaleki Timani, Nathan Sharpe; Dave Dennis, David Pocock (capt), Scott Higginbotham.
Replacements: Stephen Moore, James Slipper, Rob Simmons, Radike Samo, Michael Hooper, Nick Phipps, Drew Mitchell.