Wallabies to do without Kurtley Beale in semi-final against All Blacks - Rugby World Cup
Wallabies have been deprived of their full-back, Kurtley Beale, for the big semi-final against All Blacks because of a hamstring injury. Beal was conditionally lined up in the Wallabies squad by their head coach Robbie Deans to face the hosts at Eden Park
on October 16 but he failed to prove his fitness in the practice session. Later on, Robbie Deans told the media on October 15 that their full-back was not good to participate in the hot clash and Adam Ashley-Cooper will be deployed in backlines in his place.
Beale sustained the hamstring injury while playing against the Springboks in their quarter-final encounter and was expected to overcome the injury before the next outing of Rugby World Cup 2011. He was given a fair share of time by the management to work
on his hamstring but in the end he was unable to recover in time.
Beale broke the news of his unavailability for the highly anticipated via social website twitter as he stated that, “We've tried, and the medical staff have done a great job, but it's best for the team that I miss this one. I'm not far away and will hopefully
be ready to go next week”. He also thanked his team-mates for their support in the whole tournament and wished them good time in the field.
The Wallabies coach was also upset with the news of Beale’s exit from Sunday’s clash and declared it a great loss for his team. He told journalists that, “We always anticipated it would be unlikely that Kurtley would be ready, but we wanted to give him every
opportunity to make it. Unfortunately time has run out. It was important for the clarity of the preparation, both for the team and for Kurtley, that we made the decision today.”
Wallabies will now go with the following players to contest the All Blacks in second semi-final of RWC 2011.
Australia: Adam Ashley-Cooper; Jams O'Connor, Anthony Faingaa, Pat McCabe, Digby Ioane; Quade Cooper, Will Genia; Sekope Kepu, Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander; Dan Vickerman, James Horwill; Rocky Elsom, David
Pocock, Radike Samo.
Replacements: Tatafu Polota-Nau, James Slipper, Rob Simmons, Ben McCalman, Luke Burgess, Berrick Barnes, Rob Horne.
Tags: