Eddie Jones leaves captain out of Australia’s World Cup squad

Eddie Jones has announced a sensational World Cup squad with Michael Hooper, who he named one of his two captains two months ago, left out.

The Australia head coach has named an untested captain in Will Skelton, three uncapped bolters and has seemingly ended the Test career of veteran player Quade Cooper.

Hooper has not made the group with a calf injury hindering his chances. Cooper is also omitted with the 33-man party containing a single fly-half in Carter Gordon, who has just two international starts to his name.

Skelton, the hulking La Rochelle lock, was named as captain for the first time with Tate McDermott, who led the Wallabies against New Zealand during the Rugby Championship, his vice-captain.

Elsewhere, influential centre Len Ikitau is not included in the wake of a shoulder injury but Max Jorgenson, the highly-rated 18-year-old, is selected as an outside back despite not having played since May due to a knee ligament injury.

The two other Test rookies yet to play for Australia are prop Blake Schoupp and scrum-half Issak Fines-Leleiwasa.

As ever with Jones, there is intrigue over the intended positions of certain players. There is a designated ‘utility’ category that includes Ben Donaldson and Josh Kemeny, the latter having been pinpointed as a potential hybrid player capable of switching between the back row and wing.

Jones has lost each of his first four matches in charge and Australia will face France in their final World Cup warm-up fixture upon arriving in Europe for the tournament. However, he remains confident that his eye-catching squad can cause a shock at this World Cup, where they will share a group with Fiji, Georgia, Portugal and Wales.

“It’s a young squad, it’s an exciting squad and it will be a successful squad,” Jones said in a statement. “We are making good progress. Our challenge is to continue to improve.

“To get a little bit better every day in everything we do on and off the field. As I’ve said since I took over, in Australian rugby we have the talent, but we don’t yet have the team. That’s still the case. But we are getting there and I’m backing that we will surprise a few people.”