Hamstrung Horne pulls out
A tight hamstring has forced Wallabies centre Rob Horne to withdraw from Saturday’s James Bevan Trophy Test match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Horne failed to complete Thursday’s training session at the Ospreys training base in Swansea, and was omitted from the Wallabies side on Friday, with Queensland Reds centre Anthony Fainga’a being promoted into the starting line-up that will face Wales.
His place on the bench has been taken by Melbourne Rebels scrumhalf Nick Phipps. Phipps joins Ben Tapuai and Ben Lucas amongst Australia’s backline reinforcements for the match.
The pair of Bens are in line to become the third and fourth Test newcomers provided by the Queensland Reds this season; following on from Rod Davies and Beau Robinson who debuted during the one off Test against Samoa at Sydney in July.
Revised Australia team: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Anthony Fainga’a, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 James O’Connor, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 James Horwill (captain), 3 Salesi Ma’afu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Nathan Sharpe, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Ben Lucas, 21 Ben Tapuai, 22 Nick Phipps.
Date: Saturday, December 3
Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off: 14.30 (14.30 GMT)
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
Assistant referees: Dave Pearson, Jérôme Garces
TMO: Geoff Warren
