Cheika plays down injury fear

MICHAEL Cheika is hopeful David Pocock will be fit for next week’s clash with England after the back-rower left the field early in the Wallabies’ win over Italy in Padova.

It was thought Pocock had sustained a concussion that, due to the HIA protocols, would have put him in serious doubt for the season finale against Eddie Jones’s side.

However, Cheika said the player had instead suffered a stinger in his left arm after being pinned down at the bottom of a ruck in the 26-7 win at the Stadio Euganeo.

“He’s obviously got a pretty nasty stinger on his neck,” he said. “It was giving him the burns down the arm for quite a while. We’ll just wait and see what happens and see how he recovers over the next couple of days.”

The win was another excellent defensive display from Cheika’s men, who have now given up 16 points in two games, against a desperate Italian side who dominated large spells in either half. IRELAND defeated the All Blacks 16-9 at home on Saturday for the first time and laid a major marker for the Rugby World Cup next year.

The blockbuster match-up of No.1 and No.2, the champions of each hemisphere, lived up to the hype.

Ireland edged a rugged first half and, in a more open second half, produced a classic try and kept New Zealand tryless for the first time since last year’s Lions tour.

At a charged Lansdowne Road, Ireland became the only team to defeat New Zealand twice since the All Blacks won a second straight Rugby World Cup in 2015.