Rennie rings the changes to Wallabies for French clash

Wallaby coach Dave Rennie has rung the changes to his team to take on the French this weekend.

Last week, Australia enjoyed the narrowest of victories over Scotland at Edinburgh and Rennie has made no secret of the fact that there is still much experimenting to be done ahead of next year’s World Cup.

“(For) the World Cup we’ll definitely pick and stick next year,” Rennie said.

“What we’ve got to understand is we can put our best side, or try and put our best side out, every week – but that’s a struggle, playing five internationals in a row over here.

“We’ve got a hell of a lot of guys that aren’t here that we think will be part of our World Cup squad and so it is important that we give opportunity for certain guys.

“We look at our three nines; we could play one of them every week but (what) if he gets injured and doesn’t go to the World Cup and we’ve missed an opportunity over here.”

In the front row, Taniela Tupou replaces the injured Allan Alaalatoa while, at scrumhalf, Nic White comes in for Tate McDermott.

“Tate was good and we expected that. He made a line break early and he got a line bend beyond that,” Rennie said.

“But it was quite noticeable when Nic White came on… the quality of his distribution, his speed to breakdown which allows to play quicker and play on top.”

Also amongst the backs, Jock Campbell will replace Tom Banks after the latter suffered an ankle injury against the Scots.

“We were keen to give Jock a start on this tour,” Rennie said.

“He’s trained with us for a number of weeks now and he’s really impressed us. He’s a really smart footballer, he’s got good feet and a good skill set.

“He’s not a kid, he’s had to work hard for his opportunity and, at 27, he’s pretty mature, so we reckon he’s ready to go.”

In the midfield, Hunter Paisami makes way for Lalakai Foketi.

“Lalakai, he’s been excellent this year. He had a massive year for for the Waratahs,” Rennie said.

“He’s a bigger body, he’s got good feet, a very good skill-set and we think that’ll be important this week.”

Amongst the replacements, the big  Will Skelton and utility back Reece Hodge come onto the bench.