Kangaroos leave door open for Taniela Tupou to return against Springboks

Bale has returned from a long-term foot injury that saw him miss the second half of the Super Rugby season and required surgery. It is the second year in a row that Bale has had surgery on the same foot, having previously missed most of 2023 with a toe ligament problem.

Also included in the squad is 24-cap starter Tom Robertson, who missed the 2023 Rugby World Cup due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. He had recently returned from Oxford University, where he had studied for a year.

After fielding a nearly full-strength squad in Brisbane, Schmidt said post-match that he expected the Springboks to make changes for their second Test match, which will be followed by a two-Test series against the All Blacks for the No.1 spot in the world rankings.

After trailing 21-0 at halftime, the Kangaroos looked to use a more competitive second half, in which the Antelopes narrowly won 12-7, as a foothold to rebuild confidence and belief for the second Test, but Schmidt admitted the Antelopes were down to 13 players for much of the final 15 minutes of the Test.

Although the Wallabies scored a goal, they had conceded 33 points and were already out of the tournament – largely due to their own long-standing disciplinary problems.

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However, rookie flanker Luke Reimer was not short of optimism after making his debut on Saturday, saying he believed the Springboks were beatable.

“There were times in the game where you felt like it was possible to beat them. At the end of the day, it came down to who was out there,” Reimer said.

“You saw Ireland do it a few weeks ago. At the end of the day, it comes down to who’s available. You could argue that some of their weaknesses are certainly opportunities, but we have to think well about how we can attack those weaknesses and continue to implement them this week.”

Wallabies captain Allan Alalatoa said the heavy defeat was a good learning experience for many of the team’s inexperienced players.

“It’s going to be a tough one to take but a lot of our guys will learn from it,” he said. “As our coach said, a lot of our guys have played a few games and they are learning what the Test field is like and the best way to learn that is to play South Africa. So, we have to learn that again and then make sure we do better in Perth.”

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