Larkham could play fullback for series opener

CAPE TOWN - Wallabies playmaker Stephen Larkham is likely to move to fullback for Sunday's Tri-Nations opener if Chris Latham is unavailable through injury.

Latham moved a little gingerly round the team's hotel in Cape Town yesterday after a tackle by Springbok Schalk Burger during Sunday's test - won by the Boks 33-20 - left him with a badly bruised back.

With coach Eddie Jones keen to give Matt Giteau more time in the No 10 jersey, Jones' early preference is to slot Larkham back into the position where he started with the Brumbies in 1996.

Larkham last played a test at No 15 against England in 2002 and has also filled the position a number of times during matches.

While impressed with rookie Drew Mitchell, who looked at ease when he replaced his fellow Queenslander in the second half against the South Africans, Jones knows Pretoria is not exactly a dream place to make your run-on debut.

"It [experience] definitely will be [important] because Pretoria is not too different from Ellis Park and it will be the same sort of factors in place and certainly I think experienced players handle those conditions generally a little bit better," Jones said.

"It's the sort of place where again they probably play a little bit differently. It's the mauling capital of the world and they like high bombs there."

The move would also give the oft-targeted Larkham considerably more space to attack.

Jones described Latham as a 50-50 prospect but the man himself was still confident of playing.

"I should be fine. It's definitely very positive medical-wise," Latham said following treatment yesterday.

After cementing his spot at fullback with a dazzling spring tour of Europe last year, Latham has had a frustrating 2005 test season, slipping in and out of the Wallabies with hamstring problems.

But being a Queensland team-mate of Ben Tune - who fought his way back into the extended Wallabies squad this season after a chronic knee injury - made Latham realise missing a test or two was not the end of the world.

"I've just spent a full pre-season and a full year with Ben Tune so it puts everything in perspective," he said.

Jones was again questioned about the decision to base the team in Cape Town and fly up to the high veldt of Johannesburg the day before the match.

The Australians flew back down to the coast straight after the game and will adopt the same strategy for Sunday's Tri-Nations test at Loftus - where the Wallabies have never won.

Springbok coach Jake White rubbed salt into the festering wound yesterday, saying on South African television that he thought the Australians might have been better served spending a fortnight training at altitude.

But Jones said if he had his time over, the team would have prepared in exactly the same way.

- AAP