Australia to experiment against Ireland

Australia's rugby union team flew out of Sydney today for their tour of South America and Europe which they hope will help them…

Australia's rugby union team flew out of Sydney today for their tour of South America and Europe which they hope will help them win next year's World Cup.

The Wallabies will play tests against Argentina, Ireland, England and Italy but the real focus is on the World Cup and they are hoping their month-long tour will give an indication to their chances of winning.

And the Wallabies plan to field their best team against England and use their international against Ireland to experiment, coach Eddie Jones said.

Jones said he had changed the selection policy from the previous practice of fielding the strongest Wallaby team in all internationals, but with no midweek games during the four-Test tour he wanted to give all his players a chance to impress.

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"What we're looking to do over the first two games [against Argentina and Ireland] is give most blokes an opportunity to play and probably pick our best side against England," Jones said on Friday.

"That's the way we'll probably go which is significantly different selection policy than we've had in the past."

The Wallabies play Argentina in Buenos Aires on November 2nd, Ireland in Dublin on November 9th, England at Twickenham on November 16th and Italy in Genoa on November 23rd.

Australian squad

Backs: George Gregan (captain), Matthew Burke, Elton Flatley, Matt Giteau, Daniel Herbert, Scott Staniforth, Stephen Larkham, Stirling Mortlock, Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor, Ben Tune, Chris Whitaker.

Forwards: Matt Cockbain, David Croft, Ben Darwin, Owen Finegan, Adam Freier, David Giffin, Justin Harrison, Toutai Kefu, David Lyons, Patricio Noriega, Jeremy Paul, George Smith, Nick Stiles, Daniel Vickerman, Bill Young.