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SYDNEY - Australia selectors have dumped six players for next week's opening Tri-Nations match against South Africa as their build-up to the World Cup starts to intensify.
Digby Ioane, Hugh McMeniman, Rod Blake, James Horwill, Sam Norton-Knight and David Lyons were all left out of a reduced 25-man squad to play the Springboks in Cape Town next week.
Coach John Connolly has spent the past three matches, against Wales (twice) and Fiji, experimenting with different players and combinations but has vowed to pick his best side for the Tri-Nations.
"We stated before these internationals that we were going to experiment, as we did before the European tour last year," Connolly wrote in his weekly column with Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper.
"We stated the goal of that tour was to broaden the depth of the squad by playing 28 or 29 players -- something we achieved. From here on, coming into the Tri-Nations, all bets are off.
"The experimentation will stop. But the last thing we wanted was to get to the World Cup, get some injuries and be wondering 'what if?' We now have some options." There were no real surprises in the 25-man squad chosen to travel to South Africa, but Connolly said places in the final 30-man World Cup squad were still up for grabs.
The squad will not be selected until the Tri-Nations, a home-and-away series with the Springboks and New Zealand, ends in July.
Australia also has a pool of 30 players in the Pacific Nations Cup pressing for selection in the squad and Connolly said some of them would make the World Cup.
Injured fullback Chris Latham was overlooked for both squads after undergoing knee surgery earlier in the season, but Connolly said he was on course to make his return before the end of the Tri-Nations.
"He is well ahead of schedule apparently," Connolly told reporters in Perth after Australia thrashed Fiji 49-0 on Saturday.
"He will come back through a club game or two, and then we would look at putting him straight in.
"He is targeting South Africa (in Sydney on July 7), but the realistic view from the doctor here is the last All Black game (in Auckland on July 21)."
- REUTERS
