Burke gets axe after seven years

SYDNEY - Australia have dropped World Cup record scorer Matthew Burke for their opening rugby match of the season against the New Zealand Maori.

Burke, who scored a record 25 points in Australia's 1999 World Cup final win over France, was dropped for the first time in seven years after the Australian selectors went for Chris Latham at fullback and Andrew Walker and Joe Roff on the wings.

"This is an important game for us and we have to pick players on form," Australia coach Rod Macqueen said yesterday.

"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."

Australia are using the match at the Sydney Football Stadium tomorrow night as a warm-up for the series against the British Lions, but the match is expected to be anything but friendly.

Caps will not be awarded, but both teams are treating the match seriously. "There are several All Blacks in the Maori team so we know this is going to be full-on, but it's just want we want," Macqueen said.

"It's important for us to have a really hard match before the Lions because we would have been left a little underdone otherwise."

With Burke relegated to the reserves' bench, Elton Flatley will take over the kicking duties after winning the second five-eighths spot vacated by Tim Horan.

Uncapped loosehead prop Nick Stiles was named in the front row, with Jeremy Paul promoted to first-choice hooker after starting as a reserve for the past two seasons.

The Maori team arrived in Australia last night after a fiery build-up to the match, which included a training punch-up between team-mates.

They have won their last 21 first-class matches dating back to 1994 and are desperate to add the world champion Wallabies to their list of victims.

Several Australian senior players yesterday described the Maori side as being as good as the All Blacks.

While Australian captain John Eales called the match a virtual third test against New Zealand, team-mate Toutai Kefu went further, explaining that the Maori were more formidable than almost all international rivals.

"The Maori game is probably just as strong as a test match against the All Blacks or South Africa. They are certainly as good physically," Kefu said yesterday from the Australian camp in Coffs Harbour.

"Their players are just as good as the All Black side.

"I think they are probably stronger than the All Blacks.

"They don't have the worrying political selections coming into the way.

Eales was as impressed by the depth of the Maori squad, where even incumbent All Black No 8 Ron Cribb has been unable to make the starting line-up and, instead, will be on the reserves' bench.

The Maori team had a light run in Auckland before travelling to Sydney, with Cribb again sitting out training.

Cribb strained a calf muscle on Wednesday and has not trained since.

Dion Waller has travelled to Australia as cover, but team management remain confident Cribb will be fit by tomorrow.

New fullback Carlos Spencer ran freely, and appears to have shaken off a slight hamstring strain while showing no signs of the knee injury which left him on the Blues' Super 12 sidelines this season.

Lock Norm Maxwell said the team had virtually completed their physical preparations, and would ratchet up their mental readiness over the next two days.

Australia: Chris Latham, Andrew Walker, Daniel Herbert, Elton Flatley, Joe Roff, Stephen Larkham, George Gregan, Toutai Kefu, George Smith, Matt Cockbain, John Eales (captain), David Giffin, Glenn Panoho, Jeremy Paul, Nick Stiles.

Reserves: Michael Foley, Ben Darwin, Mark Connors, David Lyons, Chris Whitaker, Nathan Grey, Matthew Burke.

Maori: Carlos Spencer, Roger Randle, Caleb Ralph, Daryl Gibson, Bruce Reihana, Glen Jackson, Rhys Duggan; Deon Muir (captain), Taine Randell, Troy Flavell, Mark Cooksley, Norm Maxwell, Deacon Manu, Norm Hewitt, Greg Feek.

Reserves: Rua Tipoki, David Hill, Brendan Haami; Matua Parkinson, Ron Cribb, Paul Thomson, Slade McFarland.

- AGENCIES