Beale to make Rebels debut

Published: Thursday, 8. March, 2012 in category Super Rugby

Wallabies fullback Kurtley Beale will finally make his long-awaited Melbourne Rebels debut on Saturday against the Reds in Brisbane.

Beale has been struggling with an injury and missed the majority of the pre-season fixtures and the Rebels' opening defeat to the Waratahs last weekend.

The 23-year-old takes over from Mark Gerrard in the No.15 jersey, who shifts to the right wing in place of Lachlan Mitchell.

There is a change at scrumhalf, where Richard Kingi gets his first start of the season in place of Nick Phipps, who drops onto the bench for the match.

There is a forced change in the pack following the suspension of lock Adam Byrnes, and Luke Jones moves off the side of the scrum and into the second row to partner Hugh Pyle.

Tim Davidson gets the nod at blindside flank to complete the back row with Tom Chamberlain and the captain Gareth Delve.

Rebels: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Mitch Inman, 12 James O'Connor, 11 Cooper Vuna, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Richard Kingi, 8 Gareth Delve (captain), 7 Tom Chamberlain, 6 Tim Davidson, 5 Hugh Pyle, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Laurie Weeks, 2 Adam Freier, 1 Nic Henderson.
Replacements: 16 Luke Holmes, 17 Rodney Blake, 18 Alister Campbell, 19 Jarrod Saffy, 20 Nick Phipps, 21 Lachlan Mitchell, 22 Julian Huxley.

Date: Saturday, March 10
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 19.10 (09.10 GMT)
Referee: Ian Smith (Australia)
Assistant referees: Damien Mitchelmore (Australia), Rohan Hoffman (Australia)
TMO:  Steve Lesczcynski (Australia)