Tempers boil over as Argentina stun Australia
Australia flanker Lukhan Tui has said he does not want to play again this year after becoming involved in a physical confrontation with a supporter after the Wallabies lost at home to Argentina for the first time in 35 years.
A crowd of just 16,019 were in attendance on the Gold Coast as Australia paid the price for a huge mistake by full back Israel Folau, who tried to score himself on the final play instead of giving a simple pass to Bernard Foley.
And it got even worse after the final whistle as Tui rowed with a supporter – with the fan being immediately ejected. Tui later told his under-pressure coach, Michael Cheika, that he does not want to play again until 2019.
“[It got] to a point where the player is in the dressing room [saying] he’s not going to be playing any more because of that incident,” Cheika said. “I hope the fan is happy.”
Asked to clarify what Tui had said, Cheika replied: “He’s not going to play and he needs a rest. That’s a pretty heavy thing to happen. He just said it in the dressing room to players now, off the back of a very difficult dressing room. It’s not what you want to have.”
The incident at the end of the game threatened to overshadow another poor Australia performance, with the Wallabies seventh in the world rankings after winning just two of their seven Tests this year.
“They out-enthused us. The coaches can only give us so many rockets up the backside,” said scrum-half Will Genia.
“[We had] plenty of opportunities and not taking enough of them, it’s pretty simple,” said Cheika.