Henry Speight

Speight signs Rugby Aus extension

Speight, 30, signed a one-year extension to remain in Australia until at least the end of the Rugby World Cup.

A veteran of 19 Tests, Speight was delighted to earn a longer stay, including with the Brumbies.

"There's still a lot to achieve with both the Brumbies and the Wallabies so I'm really excited to be staying in Canberra for another year," he said.

"The World Cup is a big target of mine. I really enjoyed the experience in 2015 but I want to go one step further next year so hopefully I'm part of that.

Bledisloe performance 'not acceptable': Speight

The Wallabies began training Christchurch on Monday ahead of this weekend’s second Bledisloe, Speight said players knew they were not up to scratch in that opening defeat.

“A lot of harsh truths didn’t have to be said,” he said.

“Us as individuals and us as players can be the harshest on ourselves.

“We knew that first half especially is a standard that is not acceptable and that in itself is a big reality check for us players.

“We didn’t need much of the coaches or much video for that be brought to face for us.

Speight and Arnold join Wallabies

Speight, 28, returns to the squad after playing for Australia's rugby sevens side at the Rio Olympics where they reached the quarter-finals, while Arnold has overcome an elbow injury to feature and will look to build on strong showings in his two tests to date.

Fiji-born Sefa Naivalu of Melbourne Rebels is yet to complete his nationality switch, but will train with the squad before becoming eligible on September 18th and is one of four uncapped inclusions alongside Kyle Godwin, Lopeti Timani and Tom Robertson.