Rugby World Cup
Wallabies flyer Henry Speight reflects on roller-coaster ride to World Cup
Sam Bruce
September 26, 2015
Australia to utilise strength in depth

Wallabies flyer Henry Speight has been reflecting on what has been a "roller-coaster" ride to Test rugby as he prepares to make his Rugby World Cup debut against Uruguay in Birmingham on Sunday.

Speight was on Friday named at outside centre in a new-look Wallabies side to face the South Americans, coach Michael Cheika making 14 changes to the starting team that had defeated Fiji 28-13 in Cardiff on Wednesday. And there are few better stories than Speight's after the Fijian flyer was forced to serve a three-year residency period before he became eligible for the Wallabies and then, only recently, was forced to watch from the sidelines as he served a five-week suspension for a lifting tackle.

Still, the Brumbies fan favourite known as 'Silky' recovered from that recent setback to win a place in the squad and now he will line up against Uruguay with another unlikely Wallabies player, New Zealand-raised Toby Smith.

© 2015 Getty Images/2015 Getty Images

"It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, I guess," Speight told ESPN. "I mean it's a small world: I played for the same high school, in the same club team as Toby Smith, and then played in the same province in New Zealand. And now, to be on the same flight to the World Cup representing Australia, you could never have dreamed that."

Speight will deputise for Tevita Kuridrani on Sunday in what has been dubbed a Wallabies "B-Team", the regular winger moving into the less familiar No.13 jersey. He's had no lack of direction, though, revealing Brumbies team-mate Kuridrani has been his room-mate throughout the Wallabies' stay in Bath.

"I think excited is a bit of an understatement," Speight said of the anticipation for the match at Villa Park in Birmingham. "I'm still pinching myself that I'm here and I'm just looking forward to playing my first Rugby World Cup game. I'm rooming with Tevita, so not a bad person to pick brain's off. He's given me a lot of tips and insight into how he plays the game at 13, and I'm just trying to take as much of that as I can into the game."

© 2015 Getty Images/2015 Getty Images

Speight wasn't a part of the match-day 23 for the Wallabies 28-13 win over Fiji yet he still felt the significance of the occasion. "To be on the sidelines on Wednesday against Fiji - I didn't dream that, either," he said. "There were a few cousins and some school mates in the [Fiji] team who I caught up with after the game, and we just had a bit of a reflection on our different paths and how we've gone our different ways and then crossed each other again with different nations. So it's been a hell of a ride and I'm just enjoying every bit of it."

It's a ride that's only going to get better come Sunday.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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