Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga has revealed players left out of their World Cup opener against Fiji will return against Scotland.
Meninga rested all of his Eels and Panthers for the opening clash to give them as much recovery time as possible following the NRL grand final.
Speaking on SENQ Breakfast, Meninga said they would all “absolutely” be playing in the second match of the tournament.
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“I think there will be about seven of them that didn’t play on the weekend, they’ll all be playing against Scotland,” he said.
“I’ll give them an opportunity to work together, obviously Ben Hunt started (at) nine but I’ll probably start Harry Grant this week and James Tedesco who’s the captain will start again.
“We’re trying out our spine, we had the Queensland spine plus Teddy last weekend, but we will try this combination this weekend and see how it goes.”
Grant had a blinder against Fiji, crossing once himself and setting up another. Meninga said that performance gave him a selection headache he’s only too happy to suffer.
“It’s a good headache to have I must confess, we’ve got some really good players, 24 of them to be exact and they all want to play at the backend of the World Cup,” he said.
“With that in mind we’ll have a fairly committed Aussie side and we will have to make those tough decisions in a couple weeks’ time.”
Meninga said Daly Cherry-Evans would not play this weekend, but will likely return against Italy. He said he hoped to have most of the side sorted by the time the quarters roll around, but will “give everyone the best opportunity to be involved in the semi-finals.”
A win over Scotland early Saturday morning (AEDT) will lock the Kangaroos into the knock-out stages of the competition.
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