Rugby-Wallabies playmaker Donaldson released to face Lions after Beale injury
FILE PHOTO: Rugby Union - Rugby World Cup 2023 - Pool C - Australia v Portugal - Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne, France - October 1, 2023 Australia's Ben Donaldson scores a penalty REUTERS/Paul Childs/File Photo
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Western Force back Ben Donaldson was released from the Wallabies squad and flew to Perth on Thursday to prepare for this weekend's tour match against the British & Irish Lions after an injury ruled out veteran test playmaker Kurtley Beale.
Donaldson was one of four Force players retained by Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt to prepare for Australia's only warm-up match for the Lions test series against Fiji on July 6.
Beale, who famously slipped while attempting to kick a match-winning penalty in the opening match of the 2013 test series against the Lions, has been ruled out of Saturday's match by a hamstring strain.
Donaldson, who is in the Wallabies squad as a flyhalf, will replace Beale at fullback with Alex Harford in the Force number 10 shirt alongside scrumhalf Nic White.
Former Wallabies skipper White and Donaldson are joined by test players Matt Proctor, Hamish Stewart, Dylan Pietsch, Darcy Swain, Sam Carter, Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Tom Robertson in the starting team.
Openside flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny is uncapped but was named in Schmidt's Wallabies squad for the Fiji test before being released back to the Force for the Lions match.
The strength of the team should go some way to assuaging fears among the Lions management that without Wallabies players the tour games would be insufficiently competitive to prepare the tourists for the test series.
Donaldson told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday he would have played against the Lions if he had been given the choice.
"Any chance you get to play against the Lions, you probably take it with both hands," he said.
"It would be extremely exciting, especially off the back of the year we had at the Force. We started really well, and then had a kind of frustrating and disappointing finish to the season.
"Even to play in front of the fans, just to give them something to cheer about to finish the year, it would have been awesome."
Lions coach Andy Farrell names his team to face the Force, who lost 69-17 to the Lions in 2013, later on Thursday.
Force team: 15–Ben Donaldson, 14–Mac Grealy, 13–Matt Proctor, 12–Hamish Stewart, 11–Dylan Pietsch, 10–Alex Harford, 9–Nic White (captain), 8–Vaiolini Ekuasi, 7–Nick Champion de Crespigny, 6–Will Harris, 5–Darcy Swain, 4–Sam Carter, 3–Ollie Hoskins, 2–Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 1–Tom Robertson
Replacements: 16–Nic Dolly, 17–Marley Pearce, 18–Tiaan Tauakipulu, 19–Lopeti Faifua, 20–Reed Prinsep, 21–Henry Robertson, 22–Max Burey, 23–Bayley Kuenzle
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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