Burke dropped by Wallabies for opener
Thursday, 7 June 2001 12:34Australia have dropped World Cup record scorer Matt Burke for the first time in seven years. The Wallabies have selected Chris Latham at fullback and Andrew Walker and Joe Roff on the wings for their opening match of the season against New Zealand Maori, in what is a warm-up game ahead of the first Test against the Lions at the end of the month. With Burke on the bench, the kicking duties will be taken over by Elton Flatley.
Although no caps will be awarded for participating in this game both teams are treating the match seriously with the Australian players in particular hoping to impress the selectors and secure their places in the team line-up that will face the Lions on June 30.
"This is an important game for us and we have to pick players on form," explained Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen regarding his decision to drop Burke. "It's important that we hit the ground running this year and the players who have been chosen are the form players at the moment. There are 11 All Blacks in the Maori team so we know this is going to be full-on, but it's just want we want. It's important for us to have a really hard match before the Lions because we would have been left a little underdone otherwise," he added.
Australia: 15-Chris Latham; 14-Andrew Walker, 13-Daniel Herbert, 12-Elton Flatley, 11-Joe Roff; 10-Stephen Larkham, 9-George Gregan; 8-Toutai Kefu, 7-George Smith, 6-Matt Cockbain, 5-John Eales (captain), 4-David Giffin; 3-Glenn Panoho, 2-Jeremy Paul, 1-Nick Stiles.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
