Bath wing Cokanasiga back with England
JOE Cokanasiga has rejoined the England squad preparing to face the Springboks – having been sent home “injured” last week.
Despite England announcing last Wednesday that the Bath Rugby winger had been ruled out of the All Blacks match due to an ankle injury, on Sunday Cokanasiga came off the bench in the Blue, Black & Whites’ 31-30 defeat to the Barbarians at the Recreation Ground.
Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan subsequently fielded questions over the difference in opinion over Cokanasiga’s fitness.
Van Graan said: “He was released back to us and was available for the game. His ankle recovered and we selected him. He trained on Friday and we cleared him to play and he scored a nice try.”
After England’s willingness to play Cokanasiga hurt during the 2019 Rugby World Cup caused the winger significant long term damage, and opened up a rift between his club and country, perhaps the national side’s medical staff were erring on the side of caution.
Without Cokanasiga, England drew 25-25 in no small part thanks to a brace of tries from Bath tighthead Will Stuart, who came off the bench to make a remarkable impression on the match having not played a game for a month after suffering a knee injury against Saracens in October.
Stuart became the first prop to score two tries for England in a match as his pair of short-range blasts got the national side back into the contest at Twickenham.
Van Graan said: “He recovered really well and worked really hard on his fitness and had two massive moments. I think it was 25-6 and then three tries for England, two from our tighthead prop. I am really glad for him, I thought he carried really well and he made a really big difference for England.”
Stuart looks set to feature against the Springboks this weekend as England look to end the Autumn Nation Series on a high against the World Cup winners and then will return for club duty against Harlequins next week.
Meanwhile, a knee injury to lock Quinn Roux took the shine off Bath’s efforts in the Baa-Baas game.
Van Graan said: “Quinn Roux took a tackle, (and) it looked like he hurt his knee. That is the thing about these (friendly) games, there is a risk and a reward to them, but injuries are part and parcel of the game, it is a collision sport, guys get injured.”
Roux, 30, was signed in the summer as injury cover for England international Charlie Ewels, who continues his rehabilitation from an ACL knee injury suffered on England duty in June.