The recall of a Wallabies favourite and the third call-up of a Test prodigy has cost rising Indigenous outside back Dylan Pietsch a spot for back-to-back rugby union Tests.
The proud Wiradjuri man is one of eight changes made by Wallabies' coach Joe Schmidt, omissions which include four players from the starting run-on side that lost to the Springboks 33-7 last week.
It is the second time Pietsch has not run out for consecutive Australian caps since debuting in July of this year against Wales.
The 26-year-old first appeared in the closing minutes of the season's first Test in Sydney, but remained on the bench for the entire 80 minutes and not capped in the second Test in Melbourne.
Pietsch was omitted from the playing squad a week later against Georgia, before being recalled to tackle the world champion South Africans in a pressure Rugby Championship opener in Brisbane.
In Pietsch's absence in Perth on Saturday, Schmidt has brought in Marika Koroibete for his 59th Test match and Max Jorgensen to debut, both players capable of filling Pietsch's wing role.
Koroibete returns to the Wallabies on his favoured right wing for the first time since the final World Cup pool match against Portugal.
The 'Flying Fijian', who has continued playing club rugby in Japan since 2021, is set to directly replace injured winger Filipo Daugunu in the starting lineup since becoming available.
Pietsch, in just his second Wallabies cap last Saturday in front of a sellout Brisbane crowd during a rookie outing with South Africa, replaced Daugunu off the bench after the Fijian-born Wallaby broke his leg inside the opening 24 minutes with Australia already down 14-0.
Down by 21 points by half time, former breakaway Pietsch slipped off the wing to join current flanker, Rob Valentini, in winning ball over a number of phases while gaining valuable possession close to the Springboks' line.
While Pietsch had his hands on the ball plenty of times, he was spotted committing multiple errors amid his attempts to be vastly more aggressive, including dropping a ball in sight of the line and Australia's first try still begging at the time.
The Wallabies' media team still named Pietsch among the side's better players in its match report on Rugby Australia's website in spite of his omission.
Pietsch's place in the No.23 jersey in the reserves has been given to highly-praised 19-year-old Jorgensen, who twice had been called to debut last year only to pull out with injury on both occasions.
Former coach Eddie Jones favoured Jorgensen over Pietsch in September last year amid World Cup selection despite the Waratahs' Super Rugby elder – Pietsch having 38 appearances to Jorgensen's 19 for the New South Wales side – remaining in Jones's Rugby Championship squad all of the 2023 series without playing.
While Schmidt did not pick out Pietsch by name in Thursday's press conference among the Wallabies' raft of changes, the New Zealand-born coach is looking at a bigger picture of strengthening the Australian game to build greater depth by also broadening the number of opportunities to more players following a disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign.
"We are pretty committed to trying to grow some of our own resources here," Schmidt said despite replacing Pietsch with Koroibete from Saitama Wild Knights in Japan.
"We've used over 40 players so far, and I know we've got to win Tests straight away and we're very focused on that, but we're trying build a group of 45-50 that best vaccinates us against injury, particularly double injuries in the same position."
