Injury-hit Australia send six players home
AUSTRALIA will put the onus on fringe players to redeem themselves in their season-ending Test against Wales after sending six players home with injury.
Loose forward Rob Valetini and scrumhalf Nic White have joined the already ruled-out quartet of Andrew Kellaway, Hunter Paisami, Dave Porecki and Taniela Tupou on the injury-list following the 13-10 defeat to Ireland in Dublin over the weekend. Valetini had been in doubt with an ankle problem, while White suffered a head-knock.
Though White passed his initial head impact assessment on gameday, his injury was subsequently upgraded, meaning a mandatory 12-day stand-down period, Rugby Australia said. Prop Tupou will have scans for a suspected ruptured Achilles tendon, placing him in doubt for next year’s World Cup in France. The casualties leave underpressure coach Dave Rennie needing to redeploy some of the fringe players who were embarrassed in Australia’s first ever defeat to Italy in Florence just over a week ago.
“I can guarantee there will be guys itching for another opportunity after the Italy effort,” Rennie said after Ireland. Australia have lost three out of four matches on their northern hemisphere tour, all by tight margins. Wales will also be desperate to finish their season on a high after their shock home loss to
Georgia.
Meanwhile, New Zealand halfback TJ Perenara faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after rupturing his Achilles in the closing stages of Saturday’s 25-25 draw with England and now faces a race against time to be fit in time for next September’s World Cup.
The 30-year-old Perenara had to be helped from the field after collapsing on to the turf just a few minutes before the final whistle. | EPA
“TJ has ruptured his Achilles,” coach Ian Foster Foster told the New Zealand Herald on Sunday.
“It’s the 78th minute, and he’s innocuously gone to chase a kick, and it’s gone bang, which hurts.”
The World Cup begins in France on September 8 next year.