Samu Kerevi has praised James O’Connor over their potent new Wallabies centre partnership that looks destined to continue at the Rugby World Cup.

The contrasting and complementary attributes of Kerevi and reformed bad boy O’Connor proved a nightmare for the All Blacks in Australia’s 47-26 Bledisloe Cup Test upset in Perth.

Handed his first Test start in six years, the skilful O’Connor repaid coach Michael Cheika’s faith with an accomplished display at outside centre, including sending winger Reece Hodge away for two tries.

Rampaging ball-runner Kerevi repeatedly busted tackles and memorably sent halfback Nic White in for a late try with a tackle-shedding sideline burst.

The self-effacing Kerevi again rued a chance lost when he failed to pass but he loved what he saw from O’Connor, who switched positions at times to play inside him.

“He set up Hodgey twice. I couldn’t even do it once,” said Kerevi on Sunday. “He’s really awesome, bro.

“He was just waiting for the big moments and I thought he played outstanding last night, especially outside me giving me a lot of confidence to run the ball or defend well.”

Kerevi believed former party boy O’Connor had developed an aura about him since his return in recent months from Europe.

“He’s changed a lot since the last time I’ve seen him – just really low key.

“After the recovery session, I was asking him if he wanted to go into the city and he said he was going to go to bed and get some more food and get the recovery packs on. I was like ‘ah ok, ok. He’s the ultimate professional now’.”

O’Connor said his first Wallabies start in six years was a special experience and he credited wholistic men’s health group Saviour World for helping him turn over a new leaf.

“I knew I had it in me to do it. But there were a lot of things that had to go right,” O’Connor said.

“For me, I just had to be disciplined, and win the day every day. One little thing could put me back a couple of days.

“If I didn’t have (Saviour World), I’d still be in the wilderness in the UK.

“A lot of this (credit) goes towards that, giving me the strength and the power to really chase what I wanted and put it out there and have the guts to fight my ego and come back and do what I love.”

He hoped his story could help others.

“I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger, and I’ve learnt from them now,” O’Connor said.

“So I guess I have a bit of wisdom in that area about some ways you can do it better so people don’t follow what I did and waste five years of their career and their life.”