Monday’s rugby news has Cooper’s injury, the Brumbies and Tahs battling for spots, the in-form Burgess out for the season and a memorable punch-up in the Aviva premiership.
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Cooper injures shoulder
Wallabies five-eighth Quade Cooper is set to miss a large part of next month’s home Test series against France after dislocating his left shoulder in the Reds’ 30-27 Super Rugby loss to the Rebels on Saturday. The 50-Test fly half was injured in the eight minute of the match, landing heavily on his shoulder in a Laurie Weeks and Tom Kingston tackle.
Cooper will be hoping that he can participate in the series at all, his fate contingent on an MRI scan after a post-match X-ray cleared the Queensland Red of any bone damage. “At this stage we know he has a Grade 3 AC joint injury and we are hopeful it ends there,” Reds coach Richard Graham said. [/one_half]
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Tahs playmakers in Wallabies limbo
Cooper’s injury opens the door for a re-shuffle of the Wallabies backline. But Waratahs coach Michael Cheika believes that, despite the recent impressive form of NSW playmaking duo Bernard Foley and Kurtley Beale, nether will be in the starting Wallabies line-up in the France series.
Cheika said that Ewen McKenzie will most likely go with Brumbies pairing Matt Toomua and Christian Leali’ifano for the series, also praising the commitment of Beale to move to inside centre for the Tahs, a move which may have quashed any Test contention at number 10. Speaking of the switch to inside centre, Cheika said, “I respect that because it could hurt [Beale] further up the chain.” [/one_half]
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Burgess out for season
The Melbourne Rebels have been dealt a massive blow to their Super Rugby campaign, with Luke Burgess suffering a potentially season-ending knee fracture. Burgess was a clear standout against the Reds, putting his hand up for Wallabies contention with two excellent tries. With fellow scrumhalf Nic Stirzaker out until late June with an ankle injury, the Rebels will have to call on 3rd and 4th stringers Ben Meehan and Josh Holmes.
Also coming out of the match, the Reds’ Ed O’Donoghue will face the SANZAR judiciary after being accused of eye-gouging Rebels captain Scott Higginbotham in a 79th-minute incident. [/one_half]
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Mafu’s hook goes viral
Northampton have defeated Leicester 21 – 20 in the Aviva premiership semi-final, with a 78th minute game-winning try from Tom Wood coming despite the team being down to 14 men. Northampton’s Salesi Ma’afu was sent off for this punch on opposing hooker Tom Youngs, but at least the Australian offered him a pint afterwards.
@SalesiMaafu good shot mate, go well in the final. #rocky pic.twitter.com/LYOmWXaUrJ
— Tom Youngs (@TomYoungs87) May 17, 2014
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