Dave Dennis will captain the Waratahs against the British and Irish Lions on Saturday.

by Brendan Bradford –

Captain Dave Dennis will lead the Waratahs at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night as they attempt to become the first New South Wales side since 1959 to beat the British and Irish Lions.

Dennis and centre, Rob Horne were released from Wallabies camp by coach Robbie Deans for the historic match and will add a combined 29-Test matches of experience to an otherwise green looking Waratahs side that is missing 11 international players.

“Robbie spoke to me on Wednesday and said if I had the opportunity to play against the Lions on Saturday would I want it, so you obviously know my answer,” said Dennis after Waratahs training on Friday.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to lead the boys out tomorrow night in front of a full house, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Rob Horne has been released by the Wallabies for the Waratahs’ match against the Lions. Photo: Karen Watson

With the exception of tighthead prop Paddy Ryan, Dennis is the only forward with Test match experience and while he admits it will be tough, he’s backing the youthful starting eight, which contains a rookie second-row of Will Skelton and Ollie Atkins, to get the job done.

“It’s going to be a great challenge for us but I’ve got confidence in Paddy, Tilsey (Jeremy Tilse) and John (Ulugia) – it’s a great front row – and I’ve got confidence in John at the lineout and I’ll be back in the lineout too. We’re just going to keep it simple, be physical and just go at them,” Dennis said.

“We’re not going to complicate it too much and get bogged down in the fact that they’re the Lions and we’re just the Waratahs, the reality is it’s a two horse race and we’re going to go out there and try and knock them off.”

Waratahs coach Michael Cheika echoed Dennis’ sentiments, saying that his team is capable of causing an historic upset.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we want it to be something worth remembering,” said Cheika.

“We’re going to go for it, we can’t be looking for a glorious defeat. As a player, you want to say that you played in an international-level fixture and you made something of it.

“We’ve been all about trying to develop a winning attitude, no matter who’s in the jersey.  The odds are against us, massively, but we’ll try and buck them.  As long as there’s a chance, we’ll take it. Anything in red that moves, we’ll have a crack at. We need to play our game and do it as best we can and see what happens.”

With the rest of the Wallabies squad having the weekend off, Dennis said the match will allow him to continue pressing his case for Test selection in the coming weeks.

“I’m still in frame for selection, it’s probably a good opportunity to push myself a little bit, but I’m coming down here to win with the boys and it’s been a week or two since I’ve had a game.

“There’s a chance I could go through that whole Test series and not get selected for various reasons, there’s obviously a few guys in my position, so this is my first opportunity to play them – it might be my last or it might be my first of four, who knows – but I’m just treating it as a really special night for the club.”

Waratahs side to face the British & Irish Lions on Saturday June, 15 at Allianz Stadium.

1. Jeremy Tilse (vc), 2. John Ulugia, 3. Paddy Ryan, 4. Will Skelton, 5. Ollie Atkins, 6. Jed Holloway, 7. Pat McCutcheon, 8. Dave Dennis (c), 9. Brendan McKibbin, 10. Bernard Foley, 11. Peter Betham, 12. Tom Carter, 13. Rob  Horne, 14. Cam Crawford, 15. Drew Mitchell.

Bench – 16. Luke Holmes, 17. Richard Aho, 18. Sam Talakai, 19. Lopeti Timani, 20. AJ Gilbert, 21. Matt Lucas, 22. Ben Volavola, 23. Tom Kingston. Standby Players – Liam Winton, Terrence Hepetema.

British and Irish Lions Team –

1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Tom Youngs, 3. Adam Jones, 4. Alun Wyn Jones, 5. Paul O’Connell, 6. Tom Croft, 7. Sam Warburton, 8. Jamie Heaslip, 9.Mike Phillips, 10. Jonathan Sexton, 11. Simon Zebo, 12. Jamie Roberts, 13. Jonathan Davies, 14. Sean Maitland, 15. Leigh Halfpenny.

Bench –

16. Richard Hibbard, 17. Alex Corbisiero, 18. Dan Cole, 19. Geoff Parling. 20. Dan Lydiate, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. Owen Farrell, 23. Rob Kearney.