Campese named at centre

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 36

Campese named at centre

NZPA staff correspondent Thames The Wallaby test fullback, David Campese, will play at centre, if fit, when Australia meets Thames Valley in the final provincial match of its tour at Thames tomorrow.

Campese missed Saturday’s match against Bay of Plenty with a hamstring strain, which had not improved enough to train yesterday and he will not train today.

He has been named in the Wallaby side in the hope he improves sufficiently in the next two days to grab the opportunity of a pre-test run. But Campese will only play if fully fit and then

away from the positions of wing or full-back that he is likely to occupy in the Auckland test. The coach, Alan Jones, is desperate to give Campese match play before Saturday but is willing to play him at Eden Park, even if he lacks a warm-up game. “There will be no risks taken with him,” Mr Jones said. “The problem is he’s just had no rugby recently. He’s just been riddled with injury since he’s been here. He’s not fit today and he won’t be fit tomorrow so we just have to wait and see whether he’ll be fit for Tuesday. “He couldn’t play be-

tween the first and second tests because he was injured. He played the second and got a handful of minutes at Invercargill.

“It’s a big worry with such a magnificent player and an enormous strike force within the team.”

Mr Jones regards Campese as a vital component in Australia’s third test strategy and describes as suicidal the possiblity of leaving him on the bench for the third test. Two test candidates are included in the Wallaby backline. The wings, lan Williams and Peter Grigg, will contest a place in the three-quarters for the Auckland international if

Campese is retained at full-back.

If Campese plays on the wing, Grigg will probably lose his test place. Glen Ella returns to the Wallaby team at full-back after a spell out with injury. His last match was against Canterbury two-and-a-half weeks ago. Bill Calcraft will captain the team for the first time on tour from the side of the scrum. The Australian team is: Glen Ella; lan Williams, David Campese, Peter Grigg, Michael Cook, Stephen James, Brian Smith; Jim Mclnerney; Bill Calcraft (captain), Damien Frawley, Rod McCall, Julian Gardner; Mick Murray, Mark Mcßain, Greg Burrow.