Wallabies coach Michael Cheika wants skipper Stephen Moore to play on until the next Rugby World Cup, insisting his axing from the starting side for their Test against Fiji isn't a changing of the guard.
The 34-year-old has been replaced in the line-up at hooker by Tatafu Polota-Nau with flanker Michael Hooper handed the match-day captaincy duties at Melbourne's AAMI Park on Saturday after holding the position in 2014 while Moore was out injured.
Cheika says it's not a transition ahead of the 2019 rugby showpiece in Japan which he wants Moore, who has 117 caps, to be a part of.
But he said that Western Force rake Polota-Nau deserves the start.
"I wouldn't say it's the beginning of transition, it's just a decision," Cheika said.
"We want to create competition so no-one is guaranteeing anyone anything and he (Moore) knows that."
Cheika believed Moore, who's set to start on the bench, had taken the decision well.
"Stephen's still our captain and our leader and there's a lot of things that go on off the field ... there's a lot of things that are important to have and Stephen's got it," he said.
"He'll take the knock on the chin and I'm sure he'll be fighting back to get a spot."
Cheika named a line-up of form players from the Super Rugby competition rather than state combinations, including two debutants in Karmichael Hunt and Ned Hanigan.
Code-hopping Hunt has been named at inside centre to become a dual international two years after switching to rugby while NSW Waratahs rookie Hanigan will start at blindside flanker.
While Queensland No.8 Scott Higginbotham returns to Test rugby after a two-year absence.
Cheika won't name the remainder of the 23 until Friday with a "log-jam" of contenders still in the mix.
Hunt, 30, played 11 rugby league Tests before playing four years of AFL and then switched to rugby in 2015.
His selection at No.12 is a surprise given he's played the Super Rugby season as the Queensland Reds fullback and sees him leapfrog the incumbent, Melbourne's Reece Hodge.
Cheika said Hunt's form and hunger to represent couldn't be ignored despite his inexperience in the role.
"He defends there, he's a great carrier of the ball, he's got great footwork so the only thing he will need to add on is some of his distribution game," he said.
Wallabies: Israel Folau, Dane Haylett-Petty, Tevita Kuridrani, Karmichael Hunt, Henry Speight, Bernard Foley, Will Genia, Scott Higginbotham, Michael Hooper, Ned Hanigan, Adam Coleman, Sam Carter, Alan Alaalatoa, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Tom Robertson Res: To be named Friday.
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