Wallabies make 13 starters and hand captaincy to two-Test rookie for Japan clash

No place for Carter Gordon after return to union from league.

Nick Champion de Crespigny of Australia is held up by British & Irish Lions players Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has rested a host of stalwart campaigners and changed all but two of his starting side for Saturday’s Test against Eddie Jones’s Japan, which opens Australia’s end-of-season tour.

Schmidt has kept only halfbacks Tane Edmed and Jake Gordon from the starting team that lost to New Zealand at the end of the Rugby Championship with flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny captaining the new-look side in his third Test.