Max Jorgensen feels comfortable on his return to fullback as the Wallabies star looks to take down Ireland in Dublin.
Jorgensen has made his name on the wing but shifts to the back for Sunday’s (AEDT) match after missing the defeat to Italy due to tonsillitis.
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The 21-year-old started both games of the Bledisloe Cup in the number 15 jersey, along with most of his time during the Waratahs before the arrival of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.
“It's good to be back at 15, I played a lot of it obviously when I was younger and played a fair bit of the ‘Tahs, so I'm feeling comfy, had a good training week this week and ready to go,” he said.
“It's definitely easy to get involved as a fullback, but over the past couple of weeks, we haven't been at our best in our attack, spreading the ball out wide and doing what we usually do.
"We've been working on that over the last two weeks, and we really know that we haven't been at our best for these past two games, and we're really looking to switch that up this weekend.”
The Waratahs star echoed the sentiment that the squad were desperate to honour Joe Schmidt’s potential last game in Ireland with a win, the place the Kiwi coach made his name with the opposition.
“Joe's been great for us over these past two years and really turned the team around from what it was before,” Jorgensen said.
“We can really harness that and send him off on a high with these last two games [away from home]. It’s something we can definitely harness and put in a good shift for Joe.”
Jorgensen’s return at fullback comes as James O’Connor slots back into the Wallabies team at fly-half.
O’Connor’s return is timely as Carter Gordon deals with an ongoing quad complaint, which was aggravated in Udine last week.
Back-rower Rob Valetini believes his energy, along with the return of Len Ikitau, has given the visitors a noticeable lift heading into the final fortnight of Tests.
“It's been awesome especially this week the whole team sort of turned up the training on Tuesday,” Valetini said.
“Boys have been turning up this week which is pretty awesome. I think we all felt pretty bad after the Italian game and we always say it's a squad mentality and the whole squad really ripped in this week through training.
“We’re hoping that that can transfer to the weekend.“
