Wallabies v. Wales : Team Announcement

The curtain will fall on Nathan Sharpe’s career for the final time this weekend when the Wallabies take on Wales in Cardiff. After a few attempts at retiring and more farewell tours than John Farnham, this will be the 116th and last time ‘Sharpie’ pulls on the Green and Gold for Australia.

The Wallabies are coming off a win against Italy last week, whilst Wales are struggling for a win of any sort in 2012 with their last competitive win being against France during the Six Nations. This week they come up against a team they haven’t beaten in seven matches that spans back to 2008 and the Wallabies will be looking to add to that dominance.

For this weeks game Robbie Deans has made several changes to the side that took on Italy. The big news is that David Pocock returns to the side with the interesting move that he will start the match instead of warming the bench behind Michael Hooper who has been outstanding in 2012.

Also in the forwards, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau comes back into the side after missing the Italy game with ‘general soreness’ with Stephen Moore relegated to the bench. The other change in the forwards is an enforced one after Sitaleki Timani spun up one week on the IRB Wheel of Misfortune which means Kane Douglas makes his return to the Wallabies side after overcoming a knee injury.

The backline sees one change with Nick Phipps recalled at scrum half to replace the injured Brett Sheehan. Waratahs scrum half Brendan McKibbin flew over to Wales this week and has the opportunity to become a newly capped Wallaby if given the chance to take the field.

With the match being played at Millennium Stadium, it will be interesting to see if the hosts leave the roof closed or open to try and attempt to nullify our leading only try scorer on  tour Nick Cummins from adding to his meat tally.

The game will kick off at 1:30am AEDT on Sunday morning.

15. Berrick Barnes
14. Nick Cummins
13. Adam Ashley-Cooper
12. Ben Tapuai
11. Drew Mitchell
10. Kurtley Beale
9. Nick Phipps
8. Wycliff Palu
7. David Pocock
6. Scott Higginbotham
5. Nathan Sharpe
4. Kane Douglas
3. Ben Alexander
2. Tatafu Polota Nau
1. Benn Robinson
Reserves:
16. Stephen Moore
17. James Slipper
18. Sekope Kepu
19. Dave Dennis
20. Michael Hooper
21. Brendan McKibbin
22. Mike Harris
23. Digby Ioane