Injury has forced tighthead prop Matt Dunning out of the Wallabies team for the first Test against France in Sydney on Saturday night.

Dunning withdrew on Thursday after suffering a reoccurrence of bleeding from a cork in his leg with Al Baxter promoted from the bench to start in the scrum and rookie Ben Alexander summoned from the Australia A team to join the reserves.

"Matt initially sustained the cork in the Test against Ireland," said coach Robbie Deans.

"It re-bled after training on Tuesday causing him some discomfort.

"We made the call at that stage to place Ben Alexander on standby, and brought him back down from Brisbane yesterday, before making the call this morning to withdraw Matt from the Test."

Deans claimed the late change would not prove too disruptive, saying that uncapped Brumbies prop Alexander had enjoyed significant preparation time with the Wallaby pack before joining the Australian A side where he featured in last Sunday's big win over Tonga.

"He (Alexander) is ready to go and did his job well for Australia A last Sunday. It is a great opportunity for him," Deans said.

Alexander acknowledged that the call up had come quickly, but vowed to lay his nerves to rest and get stuck in.

"I didn't actually know I'd be involved until Robbie told the whole team at training this morning," Alexander said.

"Up until then, I was under the impression that I was just there as cover, but it was a massive feeling to learn that I'd be part of it. I can't wait.

The 23-year-old has packed down on both sides of the scrum during training with the Wallabies.

Starting props Benn Robinson and Al Baxter are also capable on both the loose and tighthead side.

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