Wallabies centre Horne struggled with injury during the 2011 Super Rugby season © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Berrick Barnes | Robbie Deans | Rob Horne | Dan Vickerman

Tournaments/Tours: Rugby World Cup

Teams: Australia

Rob Horne has returned to the field and is hoping to make a late charge for a place in Robbie Deans' 30-man squad for the World Cup.

Horne - who appeared in a Sydney club game for Southern Districts - has missed the majority of the Waratahs' Super Rugby campaign with an elbow injury suffered in the round three loss to the Crusaders. Despite playing six Tests for the Wallabies last season, Horne missed out on the November internationals due to injury.

But with Adam Ashley-Cooper appearing to be the first-choice outside-centre for the Wallabies, behind the future Waratahs man there is an alarming lack of depth for Deans to choose from. Deans was an interested spectator in the crowd for the Southern Districts match and Wallabies selector and coaching co-ordinator David Nucifora told the AAP that "Rob got through the game well."

Nucifora - who was present at Sydney University's game - witnessed two Australian internationals perform well as they too bid to be part of the Wallabies party going to New Zealand for the World Cup. Berrick Barnes contributed 27 points - a try, five conversions and four penalties - as he strives to beat the headaches which have plagued his season. And Nucifora was impressed with the 25-year-old's showing.

"It was good to see him get through another game yesterday, his involvement was very good," said Nucifora. "He mixed his game up from being at the back at fullback to getting in the line as first receiver and he defended in the line for a while.

"He will be getting a lot more confidence out of every minute of game time that he gets."

Lock Dan Vickerman - who came off the bench in Australia's loss against Samoa - also performed amicably as he aims to reach peak fitness ahead of the final squad announcement on August 18th. "He did very well yesterday, he went full throttle for the 80 minutes, he was still making tackles and hitting the rucks in the 79th minute of that match," Nucifora said.

"His aerobic base is very good, he worked very hard on that prior to returning and it's just him getting used to the physicality and the knocks that you take in getting your match fitness. Yesterday he proved that he's probably a lot further down the track than we thought he might have been."