Wednesday’s rugby news has Scott Sio’s injury revealed, Cheika taking ownership over his team’s performance, Cheika standing up for Joubert and Barbarians team announced.
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Sio Injury Revealed
Wallabies prop Scott Sio has suffered a haematoma on his Elbow and is a possibility to play this weekend.
“He’s got a massive haematoma on his elbow, he’s got no range at all,” Cheika said.
“The haematoma will go down and that will give him more range. It will all be about has there been damage done to his elbow and will he be able to perform his job.”
Meanwhile, Israel Folau and David Pocock are looking likely to take the field against Argentina in this weekend’s semi final match. David Pocock was able to run pain-free on his calf on Sunday whilst Folau’s ankle is progressing positively.
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Cheika Takes Ownership
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has taken responsibility for the Wallabies not fulfilling their potential in their quarter final match against Scotland but still believes that they merited the win.
“I think I let the team think too much about the games before,” Cheika said.
“They were still thinking about the game against Wales and game against England and I let that atmosphere stay.
“I don’t feel that I as a coach performed very well last week in preparing the team for that quarterfinal, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again this week.
“I don’t feel fortunate at all. In the game we merited the win, we scored five tries in a quarter-final of the World Cup … “I understand the romance of it all, and how that is easy to say [that Scotland should have won]. But we scored five tries, and gave away an intercept and a charge down which were poor decisions on our part.”
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Cheika Stands up for Joubert
Michael Cheika has stood up for under fire referee Craig Joubert after his performance in the quarter final was heavily criticised.
“I generally feel for the referee, that’s so unfair,” Cheika said.
“No other referee’s had his stuff put out there like that and Craig Joubert’s a very good referee … I’d like my mates to back me up a little bit more on the odd occasion. I really do feel for (Joubert).
”We talk about having the right principles in the game and I don’t think that, from some of the commentary that’s been from Craig Joubert and also about the … way that’s been handled.
“I’ve genuinely never seen it before. You folks have been reporting on the game. I’m not sure why that decision had to be publicly reviewed and put out a thing. I really hope that his fellow referees stand by him a lot.”
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Barbarians Squad Announced
The Barbarians team to take on Argentina next month has been announced including the appointment of Michael Cheika as head coach.
Nehe Milner-Skudder, Waisake Naholo, Charlie Faumuina, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Lima Sopoaga and Ryan Crotty from the All Blacks have all been named as well as Hurricanes backrower Ardie Savea.
Victor Matfield, Michael Hooper, and Nemani Nadolo were also named in the squad.
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