KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Western Force winger Digby Ioane was today named to make his Wallabies debut in Saturday night's second rugby test against Wales at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.
At 21, Ioane is the youngest member of the Wallabies' 30-man squad and he replaces Mark Gerrard, who will come off
the bench.
Ioane's inclusion was one of four changes to the team which started in Australia's 29-23 victory in the first Test in Sydney last Saturday.
Veteran five-eighth Stephen Larkham returns after missing the first test with a strained hamstring tendon, while second-rower Dan Vickerman makes his long-awaited comeback from shoulder surgery following a 15-minute cameo from the reserves' bench last Saturday.
George Smith replaces Phil Waugh at openside flanker, with the Wallabies co-captain named on a reserves bench that again features five forwards and two backs.
In another change to the pack, Benn Robinson replaces his NSW Waratahs teammate Matt Dunning at loosehead prop, with Dunning reverting to the bench.
Coach John Connolly also made two changes to his backline, but opted to retain the centre pairing of Adam Ashley-Cooper and Stirling Mortlock and will continue to experiment with Matt Giteau at halfback and George Gregan on the bench.
Mortlock will captain the team.
Ioane burst onto the scene as a bolter for the Wallabies' 2005 spring Tour of France and the UK and has forced his way into the Test team on the back of a strong Super 14 campaign for the Force.
Ioane and Drew Mitchell on the wings provides the Wallabies with speed to burn out wide.
Larkham reclaimed the No.10 jersey from Sam Norton-Knight after being a late scratching from the first Test.
Connolly said he was looking for a more polished performance from his team on Saturday.
"There's no doubt we have to improve on last week's performance and we want to move on from that and produce a much more disciplined performance this Saturday," he said.
"We've made a couple of changes in the forwards and backs which we need to do to look at improving our depth and assessing different players prior to the World Cup, but we're also hoping to build on some of the combinations we used in the first Test."
The winners will be awarded the James Bevan Trophy, while the Wallabies will look to extend their proud record at Suncorp Stadium, having lost just one match at the venue since 2001.
Australia
Julian Huxley, Digby Ioane, Stirling Mortlock (captain), Adam Ashley-Cooper, Drew Mitchell, Stephen Larkham, Matt Giteau, Wycliff Palu, George Smith, Rocky Elsom, Dan Vickerman, Nathan Sharpe, Guy Shepherdson, Stephen Moore, Benn Robinson.
Reserves: Adam Freier, Matt Dunning, Mark Chisholm, Stephen Hoiles, Phil Waugh, George Gregan, Mark Gerrard.
- AAP
