Tuesday’s rugby news has all the fallout from Link’s suspensions, the Scots looking for improvement and some All Black injuries.
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Link suspends six Wallabies
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie has sensationally dropped six players for the upcoming Test against Scotland for staying out late and drinking in Dublin last week. Among those stood down for the Murrayfield match are Nick Cummins, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Benn Robinson and Liam Gill, while Paddy Ryan will serve his ban next week in Cardiff because the Wallabies are required to have four props.
Nine more squad members received disciplinary warnings for breaking sanctions. Dave Dennis, Kane Douglas, Saia Fainga’a, Bernard Foley and Nick Phipps all received written warnings while starting flanker Scott Fardy, Mike Harris, Ben McCalman and reserve scrumhalf Nic White were given verbal warnings. The sanctions come after the team went out for dinner on Tuesday night, coming home late after consuming ‘inappropriate levels of alcohol’ ahead of their day off on Wednesday. [/one_half]
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Protocol breaches prompted action
The six Wallabies’ suspensions were handed down for breach of team protocols, with Link emphasising, ‘Doing nothing to address poor behaviour will never be an option. We’ve taken on the challenge of re-defining our team culture.’ McKenzie defended his decision to delay the suspensions until after the Ireland game, saying that the decisions could only be fair, ‘if you establish the facts and that takes time.’
At the same time though, Link did stress that the there were no official complaints made and no incidents recorded against the offending players. The Wallabies also have no curfew or drinking ban in place so without further information from team management it is hard to assess the decision. With an off-day upcoming, the drinking session should not impact the player’s performances. We will probably never get the player’s perspectives but it is hard to imagine 15 Wallabies going against a clearly expressed directive to only have ‘one or two drinks’ and head home afterwards, but this would thoroughly justify the suspensions. [/one_half]
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Scotland promises improved performance
Scotland wing Sean Lamont has said that his side must improve upon their mistake-filled loss to South Africa over the weekend, emphasising that easy turnovers and mental errors will be punished. ‘South Africa are ranked second in the world and you can’t do that against any team, never mind the top sides in the international game,’ Lamont said.
Lamont also asserted that the Scots must forget the shocking display before facing Australia in their final autumn Test on Saturday. ‘It was frustrating towards the end and we were trying to force things a little bit,’ he said. ‘But we just need to move on and hope to make amends in our Test next week.’ [/one_half]
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Key All Blacks ruled out
Injured stars Dan Carter and Tony Woodcock will not play in the All Black’s match against Ireland this weekend. Woodcock has suffered a hamstring injury while Carter, who left the field in in the 22-30 victory over England, has an Achilles tendon injury.
Steve Hansen has recently blamed Dan Carter’s bio-mechanical frailties for a slew of recent injuries, saying that his running style ‘puts pressure on his joints and ligaments.’ Carter has admitted that he has played with niggles all year after the 31-year-old five-eighth suffered four different injuries in the past 12 months alone. Carter has been given leave for the first half of next year, which will now commence with this latest injury. [/one_half]
