The Wallabies have named a 24-man travelling party for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup/Tri Nations clash with New Zealand in Auckland, with all of the additional players selected coming from the HSBC Waratahs.
With Nick Phipps and Nathan Sharpe dropped from the match day 22 which defeated South Africa in the opening match of the Tri Nations, the Wallabies have called in Luke Burgess, Lachie Turner, Dan Vickerman and Sitaleki Timani.
Burgess returns after proving his fitness following rehabilitation on a fractured hand, which he broke at training prior to the Super Rugby Qualifier in June.
Turner is included in the travelling group after pleasing during recent outings for his Sydney club Eastwood, which included scoring a try during last weekend’s win by the Shute Shield front-runners over Parramatta.
Vickerman also featured strongly for Sydney University last weekend, getting through a full 80 minutes as the students overran Northern Suburbs.
The 56-cap lock forward, returned to the Wallabies for the first time since 2008 when he appeared off the bench against Samoa in Sydney last month.
Timani made his international debut in the same match after enjoying his best ever season of Super Rugby.
The Wallabies wrap up their training camp at The Southport School on the Gold Coast today, and will fly to Auckland tomorrow afternoon.
The squad heads to South Africa after the Auckland match, with the travelling squad for the team’s assignment in Durban on Saturday week extended to 26 players, with the extra players to be collected en-route on Sunday.
The extra players for that trip will be confirmed after this weekend’s Test.
The Australian touring party for Saturday night’s opening Bledisloe Cup Test of the year in Auckland is:
Ben Alexander (Eastwood/Brumbies), Adam Ashley-Cooper (Northern Suburbs/Brumbies), Kurtley Beale (Randwick/HSBC Waratahs), Luke Burgess (Sydney University/HSBC Waratahs), Quade Cooper (Souths/Queensland Reds), Pek Cowan (Warringah/Western Force), Rocky Elsom [c] (Randwick/Brumbies), Anthony Faingaa (Souths/Queensland Reds), Saia Faingaa (Souths/Queensland Reds), Will Genia (Norths/Queensland Reds), Scott Higginbotham (Wests/Queensland Reds), Matt Hodgson (Eastern Suburbs/Western Force), James Horwill (University of Queensland/Queensland Reds), Digby Ioane (Sunnybank/Queensland Reds), Sekope Kepu (Randwick/HSBC Waratahs), Pat McCabe (Warringah/Brumbies), Ben McCalman (Sydney University/Western Force), Stephen Moore (University of Queensland/Brumbies), James O’Connor (Cottesloe/Western Force), David Pocock (Western Force), Rob Simmons (Sunnybank/Queensland Reds), Sitaleki Timani (Southern Districts/HSBC Waratahs), Lachie Turner (Eastwood/HSBC Waratahs), Dan Vickerman (Sydney University/HSBC Waratahs).