Monday’s rugby news has concerns about Fiji’s forwards, O’Connor in injury trouble, South Africa in mourning and McCaw disciplined.
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Fiji’s scrum improves
Wallaby set-piece coach Mario Ledesma says he was one of the few not surprised to see Fiji bossing England’s set-piece around in the Rugby World Cup opener. Ledesma said the addition of former Bulls coach Frans Ludeke to the Fiji coaching staff had made them a scrummaging and line out force.
“They (England) might have been a little bit surprised,” Ledesma said. “A lot of people have not been thinking about Fiji but I have been looking at the game against Canada, the game against Japan, Samoa, even Wales last year. Most of the time they were dominating.” The Wallabies will also be looking to showcase their set-piece improvement under Ledesma and set the tone for the tournament.
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JOC undergoes surgery
James O’Connor has revealed that a visit to a knee specialist yesterday has uncovered a major posterior cruciate ligament injury. Scans detected that the PCL was torn almost completely off the bone, and it is likely that JOC was playing with this instability throughout his first Reds season with the first knee injury occurring while playing for Toulon.
“It’s a shock but relief too because it does finally explain some of the issues I had,” O’Connor said. “I didn’t have my acceleration off the mark with the Reds but I always wanted to be on the field.” O’Connor had clean-up surgery on his right ankle at the same time last week to remove bone spurs and expects to be sidelined from off-season training for 12 weeks.
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South Africa reacts to loss
The Springboks are still reeling from their massive upset loss to Japan, with coach Heyneke Meyer ruing the team’s ill-discipline in their opening match. “I have to apologise to the nation,” Meyer said. “It was just not good enough. It was unacceptable and I take full responsibility.”
South Africa scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, who plays his club rugby in Japan, described the result as the low point of his career and said the Springboks had been “outsmarted”. South African Jean de Villiers, meanwhile, was staying positive in the face of the unprecedented upset, emphasising that the Springboks could still make it out of the group stage if they win all their remaining matches.
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McCaw carded
All Black captain Richie McCaw was labelled ‘dumb’ by his coach Steve Hansen after being sent to the sin as the defending champions opened their World Cup campaign with a shaky win over Argentina. The world’s most capped player of all time was handed his third yellow card when he intentionally tripped up Pumas flanker Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe 29 minutes in.
‘Speaking to both the boys they know they were dumb ones and sometimes in the heat of the moment you have a brain explosion,’ Hansen commented. ‘We’ll have a chat about it because we can’t afford to keep playing with 14 men and at one stage only 13.’ McCaw was twice roundly booed when he appeared on the giant screen.
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