Waite catapults Pratt into Test

Karl Pratt is to be thrown into the Test against Australia here on Friday after starting just five games for Leeds so far this season.

The versatile 21-year-old has been named on the left-wing in David Waite's team to face the world champions – a remarkable turnaround for a player whose year has been such a stop-start affair.

Pratt has six screws in his left shoulder, a legacy of the operation that kept him out at the start of the season. An eye injury and a suspension have also interrupted his progress and when he tried to fly to South Africa with Leeds for a pre-season game, he found that his passport was out of date.

A season when little was going right was transformed in the second half of the Origin game at Headingley last month, when his pace revived Yorkshire's fortunes. "I was surprised even to be involved in that game,'' he said. "After that I was sitting at home watching for my name to come up on Teletext in the Great Britain squad and then running around the house looking for people to tell."

Waite has always been a fan of Pratt, who would have been in his squad for the Ashes series last autumn, had he been fit.

Pratt has played everywhere from full-back to hooker for his club, but on Friday night, he will face arguably the most physically formidable winger in the game in Lote Tuqiri. "It doesn't make any difference,'' he said of the imbalance in size and weight. "You've just go to go out and do your best against whoever you are up against.''

Waite also has complete confidence in the one debutant in his starting line-up. "I am confident that he is ready to take the step up,'' he said. "He offers incredible versatility. He's great under the high kick and he returns the ball well.''

The other player making his first appearance for Great Britain will be St Helens' 22-year-old centre Martin Gleeson, who has been named on the bench – although Waite stressed that there is a possibility that he might fine tune his team before kick-off.

One concern for him will be the fitness of Terry O'Connor who tweaked his hip in training yesterday. Paul King has not been selected, but missed most of training anyway after colliding with Keith Senior, who has proved his own fitness to take his place in the line-up.

The Australian coach, Chris Anderson, has reacted angrily to suggestions of disunity within his camp. Anderson won the argument to have two players from New South Wales, Jason Stevens and the inexperienced Willie Mason, included on his bench ahead of more favoured candidates from Queensland, but he denied that this would affect his relationship with other Queenslanders in the side.

"We are a team and we're an Australian team, not a Queensland or New South Wales team,'' he said.

The St Helens coach, Ian Millward, has been interviewed over a satellite link for a vacant job of coaching the Sydney club, Wests-Tigers next season.

The club intends to announce its choice to succeed Terry Lamb by the end of the week, with Millward who has won everything in the British game in his two and a half years at Saints, emerging as the favourite, ahead of the New Zealand coach, Gary Freeman, and the Brisbane Broncos assistant, Craig Bellamy.

The vastly experienced Tim Sheens has also been interviewed but it is understood that the club is leaning towards Millward, whose departure would be a major blow to Saints, who would then be likely to turn to Widnes' Neil Kelly.

GREAT BRITAIN (v Australia, Friday, Sydney): K Radlinski (Wigan); P Johnson (Wigan), P Wellens (St Helens), K Senior (Leeds), K Pratt (Leeds); P Sculthorpe (St Helens), R Sheridan (Leeds); T O'Connor (Wigan), K Cunningham (St Helens), B McDermott (Leeds), J Peacock (Bradford), C Joynt (St Helens), A Farrell (Wigan, capt). Substitutes: M Gleeson (St Helens), T Newton (Wigan), S Fielden (Bradford), K Sinfield (Leeds).