Kiwis must make do in face of Beale’s exit

The Kiwis won’t be able to draw on a replacement for injured centre Gerard Beale and will have to make do with the initial squad they named for the remainder of the World Cup.

Beale broke his tibia and fibula in Saturday night’s win over Samoa at Mt Smart Stadium and had surgery to repair his leg on Sunday.

The new Warriors recruit will miss the rest of the tournament and is expected to be recovering for up to six months, which will eat into the start of the 2018 NRL season.

Cup rules state the 24-man squads named at the start of the tournament are the final list of players that coaches can select from. The only way an extra player can be brought in is if organisers make an exemption under exceptional circumstances where teams have no other clear options in a certain position.

The Kiwis will have to use Peta Hiku or Dean Whare in the centre when they name the side to face Scotland later today.

Australia are in a similar position, having lost lock Jake Trbojevic with a torn pec. Fiji might be able to argue for a replacement having lost two props — Korbin Sims and Kane Evans — while Italy have lost halfback Jack Johns and have Terry Campese battling injury as well.

The Sydney Roosters have won the race to sign Storm halfback Cooper Cronk, now on board for two years. Acquiring Cronk is a huge coup for Trent Robinson’s side, which ran second to premiers Melbourne Storm in the last regular season but crashed out at the preliminary final stage.

The issue for the Roosters now is whether they can convince long-term halfback Mitchell Pearce to stay. He has two years to run on his contract but faces being a back-up to the game’s best No 7 after a decade steering the team.