Rugby: Wallabies to field two separate starting teams in opening pool games

Michael Cheika's Wallabies had to plan for a four-day turnaround. Photo / Getty Images

The Wallabies will field entirely different starting XVs in their opening two pool games as a way to deal with the challenge of three tests in 11 days.

Assistant coach Stephen Larkham said the Wallabies squad would be split down the middle, meaning one starting side - ostensibly the strongest - will be chosen to play Fiji on September 24 (NZT) and a second, and different, XV will run on against Uruguay on September 28.

Some will cross over on the benches but no starting players from the Wallabies' A side will back up and start against Uruguay as well. They'll instead begin to turn towards the big clash against England on October 4.

"Once we get over there [to England], it is 10 days before the first game and we are splitting into two teams basically," Larkham told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

In past World Cups, Wallabies' teams to play against minnow nations have included many "reserves" but always retained a core of top-team starters. Quade Cooper played in every test at the 2011 Rugby World Cup. But changes to the World Cup fixture list after the 2011 tournament, mean Michael Cheika's Wallabies had to plan for a four-day turnaround for the first time since 1999.

Tier-2 nations complained about ultra-condensed schedules - Russia played four games in 16 days - while top nations played on weekends for better ratings. The IRB changed the rules in 2013, declaring every team would have a midweek game in 2015.

"That awkward start, with a Wednesday game and a Sunday game, we are training as two teams," Larkham said.

If Australia, Wales and England all record one win and one loss against each other, the for-and-against tallies against Uruguay and Fiji could determine who makes the quarter-finals.

World Cup-winning captain Nick Farr-Jones has questioned Cheika's selection policy.

"I'm not sure whether that's good or whether that's bad - that we don't have a settled XV," Farr-Jones told foxsports.com.au.

"When I think back to '91 and the success my team had, we had a very settled team, we had very settled combinations.

"I always think that it's much better to have your starting XV well organised, well prepared, with combinations that have worked in a year or two preceding."

- Daily Telegraph