{"id":147876,"date":"2021-10-22T02:40:39","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T02:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=147876"},"modified":"2021-10-22T08:58:08","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T08:58:08","slug":"unwanted-aussies-turn-japanese-against-wallabies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=147876","title":{"rendered":"Unwanted Aussies turn Japanese against Wallabies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Japan&#x27;s forward pack to take on the Wallabies in Oita tomorrow will have a strong Australian flavour with the uncapped Ben Gunter joining compatriots Jack Cornelsen and James Moore in the starting lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Gunter, 23, will make his Test debut at blindside flanker ahead of former captain Michael Leitch, who has been named on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Japan coach Jamie Joseph said he was looking for loose forwards who could &quot;play the game at speed&quot; and described Gunter as a player &quot;with potential.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Stan Sport is the only place to watch<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/rugby?utm_source=wwos&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=rugby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Wallabies vs Japan\"><strong><em>Wallabies vs Japan<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>\u00a0on October 23 and<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/rugby?utm_source=wwos&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=rugby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong><em>All Blacks vs USA<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>\u00a0on October 24 \u2013 both matches streaming ad free, live and on demand on Stan Sport. Start your seven day free trial\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/rugby?utm_source=wwos&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=rugby\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong><em>here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1451089247809597447?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"embed-social embed-twitter\" data-show-caption=\"false\" data-conversation=\"none\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1451089247809597447?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Being Australian and representing Japan, playing against his countrymen will be something special for him,&quot; Joseph said.<\/p>\n<p>Gunter will line up against former Brisbane Boys&#x27; College teammates Len Ikitau and Darcy Swain.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think it&#x27;s a pretty cool story and it&#x27;s great that we can stay in contact,&quot; Gunter told Wide World of Sports ahead of his selection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/rugby\/wallabies-vs-japan-rugby-test-australian-ben-gunter-now-with-brave-blossoms\/d7f1ba41-5d24-4400-a34e-57e66d1c0173\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"&#x27;Fairytale&#x27; story that could bite the Wallabies\"><strong>&#x27;Fairytale&#x27; story that could bite the Wallabies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/rugby\/wallabies-team-vs-japan-spring-tour-dave-rennie-players-picked-samu-kerevi\/963b2e3c-84d0-4bc4-b3c6-38b6fc1fe3a9\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Wallabies name debutant to open spring tour\"><strong>Wallabies name debutant to open spring tour<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/rugby\/australian-rugby-news-2021-wallabies-spring-tour-will-skelton\/965f5984-81ae-4f76-8391-48c5141ef784\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Inside story of Skelton&#x27;s remarkable transformation\"><strong>Inside story of Skelton&#x27;s remarkable transformation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"1eee1846-5b6d-4e25-93a3-432aa53c8b18\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/1eee1846-5b6d-4e25-93a3-432aa53c8b18\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"3000\" data-height=\"2111\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;But come gameday, if I&#x27;m on the field and they&#x27;re on the field, there&#x27;s no friends on the footy field. I&#x27;ll be trying to hit them harder than they&#x27;re hitting me.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>After failing to win a Super Rugby spot in Australia, Gunter was lured to Japan by former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans, who offered him a contract with the Panasonic Wild Knights.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It would be a fairytale story to have my debut against Australia,&quot; Gunter told WWOS.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"cb516b25-3d75-450c-86cd-d252822438f9\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/cb516b25-3d75-450c-86cd-d252822438f9\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"4472\" data-height=\"2981\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;That would be a dream come true. Whether or not I&#x27;m in the team I&#x27;m still happy and proud of myself to be a part of this environment.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If you&#x27;d asked me five years ago what I thought I&#x27;d be doing, I would have said in the army or a farmer or something. To be involved in this environment, I&#x27;ve already accomplished a lot of goals and proven a lot of people wrong.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;My next goal is to prove a couple more people wrong and prove something to myself as well, that I&#x27;m an international rugby player.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"5699fe37-0465-41bd-a637-6c836dd9d0f3\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/5699fe37-0465-41bd-a637-6c836dd9d0f3\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"2359\" data-height=\"3256\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Lock Cornelsen is also a terrific story.<\/p>\n<p>He is the son of Wallabies hall of famer Greg Cornelsen, who famously scored four tries in a Test against the All Blacks in 1978.<\/p>\n<p>Like Gunter, Cornelsen was overlooked by Australian Super Rugby clubs and joined Deans at the Wild Knights.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"9c04d2c1-b13b-4f06-a8af-2609af7e74ee\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/9c04d2c1-b13b-4f06-a8af-2609af7e74ee\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"4096\" data-height=\"2731\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Growing up it wasn&#x27;t the path I imagined that I&#x27;d have taken but how quickly things can change,&quot; Cornelsen told AAP.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Dad&#x27;s always been supportive of the path I&#x27;ve gone on now. He&#x27;s backed the decision to come over here and hopefully he&#x27;ll be wearing red and white on the weekend.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is still unsure whether Kintetsu Liners five-eighth Quade Cooper will continue on tour to the United Kingdom after the Japan Test.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"da7c7b91-3236-4fea-9c45-97c50c18f0f9\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/da7c7b91-3236-4fea-9c45-97c50c18f0f9\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"2681\" data-height=\"1787\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;The intention is to take him to Europe,&quot; Rennie said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Through this process, like I&#x27;ve said, from a regulation nine point of view, we can take Quade with us.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;But we&#x27;ve been working through with the club out of courtesy, because we want to have a strong relationship with them. We understand that they&#x27;ve got goals and aspirations as well. And they&#x27;ve got a competition that starts early January. So we&#x27;ve been having constant discussions around it&#8230; we think we&#x27;ll get a positive resolution.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1449903129848393737?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"embed-social embed-twitter\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1449903129848393737?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/login?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by\u00a0clicking here!\"><strong><em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<strong><em>clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Japan&#x27;s forward pack to take on the Wallabies in Oita tomorrow will have a strong Australian flavour with the uncapped Ben Gunter joining compatriots Jack <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=147876\" title=\"Unwanted Aussies turn Japanese against Wallabies\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147878,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147876\/revisions\/147878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}