RUGBY DIGEST:RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP: WALLABIES OUTHALF Quade Cooper will miss the remaining two rounds of the Rugby Championship because of problems with the knee he injured at the World Cup last year, the Australia team said yesterday.
The 24-year-old joins a long casualty list for Australia, who face tough Tests against South Africa in Pretoria on September 29th and Argentina in Rosario a week later.
Cooper, who has yet to return to top form after his return from surgery on his right knee, had scans which revealed a “small chip of articular cartilage” on the joint.
“While the injury will require an operation to clean up and is to the same knee that was operated on after last year’s Rugby World Cup, it is not a long term injury and so may not rule Cooper out of the (November tour),” read a statement. “A decision on his availability for that trip will be made once his rehabilitation is underway.”
Australia play England, Italy and Wales on their tour of Europe in November and early December.
Berrick Barnes, who played at fullback in last weekend’s victory over Argentina on the Gold Coast, is likely to stand in for Cooper for the next two Tests and the third Bledisloe Cup clash with New Zealand on October 20th.
* AUTUMN INTERNATIONALS:England fullback Ben Foden is struggling to be fit for the autumn internationals after suffering ankle ligament damage, his club Northampton said yesterday.
Foden was injured during the Premiership match against Bath on Saturday and sustained “significant damage”, which will rule him out for a number of weeks, Northampton said in a statement.
News of Foden’s injury will be of considerable concern to England boss Stuart Lancaster. England begin a tough autumn Test schedule against Fiji at Twickenham on November 10th, which is followed by appointments on successive weekends with Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
Harlequins’ Mike Brown and Saracens’ Alex Goode would be alternatives for Lancaster in the number 15 shirt.
* SUPER RUGBY:Michael Cheika, who led Leinster to a Heineken Cup triumph in 2009, was charged with turning around the ailing New South Wales Waratahs when he was named as the Super Rugby teams new coach yesterday.
The 45-year-old has been handed a three-year contract with the province, traditionally Australia’s strongest and wealthiest, which last season crashed to a record eight successive losses and ended up 11th in the 15-team competition.
Waratahs players, however, formed the core of the Australia team and it was that talent that drew Cheika home to Sydney.
“I liked the potential of creating something at the Waratahs for longer than the few years we’ve got now,” he said.
“Not all clubs have that potential. This is a team and an organisation with really great potential and I’d really like to tap into that.”
Cheika replaces Michael Foley, who quit the job in July after just one season in charge to take up a three-year deal with the Western Force – a job Cheika turned down.
