Kangaroos manager Mal Meninga has confirmed there will be massive changes for Australia’s upcoming World Cup match against Scotland.
Meninga rested the squad’s Eels and Panthers players in his team’s first game against Fiji, however the NRL immortal has revealed they will play on Saturday.
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“Absolutely (the NRL grand finalists) will play, I think there will be about seven who didn’t play at the weekend, they will all play Scotland,” Meninga said in SENQ breakfast.
“I’ll give them a chance to work together, obviously Ben Hunt started (at) nine, but I’ll probably start with Harry Grant this week and James Tedesco, who is the captain, will start again.
“We are testing our backbone, we had the Queensland backbone plus Teddy last weekend, but we will try this combination this weekend and see how it goes.”
Meninga said she faced tough decisions going forward, particularly who starts as a prostitute after Harry Grant starred in the first match.
“It’s quite a headache to have him I must confess we’ve got some really good players, 24 of them to be exact and they all want to play at the back of the World Cup, with that in mind we’ll have a pretty The Australian side is committed. and we will have to make those difficult decisions within a couple of weeks,” Meninga said.
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“Daly (Cherry-Evans) will get another chance, he won’t play this week, but certainly against Italy he will be there.
“If it continues like this, Lebanon played very well against the Kiwis, one would assume that they would be second in that group, so we would play Lebanon in the quarter-finals.
“I figure by the quarterfinals I’d have to have most of the team figured out, but I’m going to give everyone the best chance to get into the semis.”
MORE SELECTION HEADACHES BY MENINGA
Kangaroos star Cameron Munster has acknowledged the depth within the Australian team, giving coach Mal Meninga a national team headache following their 42-8 win over Fiji.
Munster was joined by Origin partner Daly Cherry-Evans at the halves with Panthers playmaker Nathan Cleary resting for Australia’s opening clash following a brief turnaround from his premiership win.
Meninga now faces a difficult decision for the Kangaroos’ upcoming game against Scotland, whether to keep the two midfielders as they are or inject Cleary into the match day squad.
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“Nathan Cleary hasn’t played yet and he’s been one of the best players in the (NRL) competition right now,” Munster told the AAP.
“We have so many good players and obviously it’s a good headache for Mal.
“It’s great to be back playing with ‘Chez’ (Cerry-Evans) and obviously also with Harry Grant and Ben Hunt.
“We have that morale and that combination, but obviously all positions are up for grabs.”
While Cleary has yet to make her debut in the green and gold, Cherry-Evans is the most experienced member of the Australian team.
The 33-year-old has been part of two successful World Cup campaigns leading up to this year’s tournament.
Australia will take on Scotland at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Saturday morning at 5:30am AEDT.
