Burke set to step in for Mortlock
October 6, 2003

Matt Burke is set to step in for Stirling Mortlock in the Wallaby line-up for the World Cup opener against Argentina on Friday.

Mortlock has been in bed for two days with food poisoning and was finally ruled out of contention last night.

Veteran Burke is set to open his third World Cup as a stop-gap despite only two run-on appearances, both at fullback, during Australia's seven Tests this season.

NSW teammate Morgan Turinui filled the No. 13 jumper against Ireland, Wales and England before another Waratah, Mat Rogers, was handed the role for the Tri-Nations series.

Burke is now option four after Mortlock's withdrawal and a reluctance from Jones to tamper with the new positional challenge he has planned for league convert Rogers.

There was an experimental four-Test move to outside centre against South Africa and New Zealand. But since entering the Australian team's World Cup camp at Coffs Harbour more than a week ago, Rogers has trained exclusively at fullback for the Argentina Test.

Jones the Australian coach said he was unprepared to risk Morlock after a long absence with shoulder reconstruction.

"Stirling's been out for a long time and missing this amount of training this close to the game is not good preparation for anyone, let alone someone who's been out of the game for a while," Jones told Reuters at the team's training base in Coffs Harbour on Monday.

The full team announcement is expected on Tuesday.

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