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WESTERN Force centre Ryan Cross is expected to make his Australian starting debut against New Zealand in the first Bledisloe Cup Test on Saturday.
This follows today's news that Wallabies skipper Stirling Mortlock has been ruled out of the Sydney match.
Cross, the 2008 Force Player of the Year, has come off the bench as a replacement for Mortlock three times this year, scoring twice against the French in Brisbane.
Mortlock has failed to recover from a head knock he sustained in the second half of last weekend’s Tri-Nations Test match against South Africa at Subiaco.
His departure led to flanker George Smith assuming the captaincy - and he will continue in that role at ANZ Stadium.
”Stirling was concussed last weekend. We had hoped that, with time, the symptoms would resolve themselves, but that hasn’t happened soon enough for this match, so we’ve made the call early,” Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said.
“George took over once Stirling left the field in Perth and got the team over the finish line so we’ve opted to maintain continuity by leaving him in charge.”