Monday’s rugby news has injury updates for the Wallabies, no positives according to Michael Cheika, disappointment to drive Wallabies for the second test and Dane Coles praised by Steve Hansen.
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Injury Fallout
Matt Giteau is set to miss the rest of the Rugby Championship with an ankle syndesmosis injury.
“Matt’s got a bit of a break in his leg, at the top of his leg I think and a bit of a fracture in his ankle,” said Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.
“So he’s done a pretty good job on his leg.”
“He’s disappointed but he’s also very realistic.
“He’s a pro, he still knows he’s got to get himself right to get back to his club commitments (with Toulon) later in the season so that’s what he will be doing.”
Rob Horne is also expected to miss the rest of the Rugby Championship with a shoulder injury whilst Matt Toomua is expected to miss this weekend’s match in New Zealand with a concussion.
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No Positives
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said there were no silver linings in the Wallabies record home loss to the All Blacks.
“That would be a lie of me if I tried to find one [a positive],” Cheika said.
“I thought that Will Genia played well in his first game back and David Pocock was outstanding as well in his efforts and some players did that but no I don’t think [there were any positives].
“We’ve got to look forward now, straight away to the next one, that’s the only chance we’ve got.
“There’s no rustiness. When players run at you, you’ve got to tackle and that’s the nature of the game. So when other things don’t work out, that’ll look after you.”
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Disappointment to Drive Wb’s
Wallabies lock Kane Douglas says the disappointing performance against the All Blacks will be used as motivation for next weekend’s test match in Wellington.
“It’s (the mood is) pretty down but I think we’ve got to use that for motivation for next week,” he said.
“We can’t be sooking all week with our heads down, we’ve got to use it as motivation to get stuck into training, watch what we did wrong because we did plenty wrong.
“We’ve got to look at what we did in defence because we didn’t defend very well and they scored a heap of points so we’ll have a good hard look at ourselves and come up with a plan for next week.”
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Hansen Praises Coles
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has praised hooker Dane Coles after almost playing a full match with a rib injury.
Coles was a late call up to the bench after Nathan Harris was injured and after Codie Taylor was knocked out in the opening minutes, Coles played almost a full game.
“He was blowing and he’s probably sore, but they’re all sore,” Hansen said.
“He’s tough, there’s no doubt out about that. I don’t know whether that’s because he’s got no brains or he’s got too many. I’m not sure.
“But he epitomises the team I think; he got called in late, he wasn’t really expecting to play because we didn’t want to play him and came out and played really well and left himself out there on the track.
“And when someone does that for you I think you can only pay them the biggest compliment that you can. He’s a champion, and he played like one.”
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