To’omua to prove his worth

TOKYO - Australian utility back Matt To’omua is happy to start at centre for the Wallabies in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup Pool D match against Uruguay as he looks to make his case to be Michael Cheika’s main man at flyhalf.

Christian Lealiifano gets the nod at flyhalf for the Uruguay match, just as he did for the World Cup opener against Fiji, whilst Bernard Foley, who started there in the defeat to Wales, drops out of the 23man squad.

To’omua starts outside former Brumbies team mate Lealiifano on Saturday but, having come on at flyhalf to play an influential role in Australia’s attempted comeback against the Welsh he sees the Uruguay match as an audition to make the number 10 jersey his own. “A little bit,” he said on Wednesday when asked if Saturday was an audition for the number 10 jersey. “It has been chopped and changed a little bit there for whatever reason. My goal has always been to get a starting spot.”

“We will see, hopefully I can produce a good performance and push my case for it.”

“I have said it a couple of times and a genuinely mean it, there isn’t too much difference in the way we play with 10 and 12 so the transition is maybe easier than it has been in the past,” he added.

In naming his team on Wednesday, head coach Michael Cheika also handed a debut to 19-year-old Jordan Petaia on the wing.

Petaia would have made his Test debut last year against Italy had he not suffered an injury in the run-up to the match and another setback in the pretournament training camp dashed his hopes of a first cap.