Australia prop Taniela Tupou missed coaching on Wednesday as a result of a hamstring situation in a possible blow for the resurgent Wallabies a number of days out from their second World Cup match in opposition to Fiji.
Tupou was excellent in Australia’s 35-15 Pool C win over a bodily Georgia facet final weekend and can be an enormous loss for Sunday’s match in opposition to the much more sturdy Pacific islanders.
“Taniela’s sidelined, he’s got a bit of a hamstring complaint, but we’re just going to monitor him and then we’ll just see how he goes over the next couple of days,” assistant coach Jason Ryles. “He didn’t train today but that’s not unusual for Taniela, don’t worry.”
Experienced loosehead James Slipper was additionally operating by way of his personal programme as he continues to get better from a foot injury that dominated him out of Australia’s opener on the Stade de France.
“I think he’s certainly in the picture, but we’re not exactly sure how that’s going to pan out, whether it’s this week or next week,” stated Ryles.
The win over Georgia snapped a five-match shedding streak for the twice world champions this yr and the temper within the camp was clearly upbeat.
Fiji confirmed of their slim loss in opposition to Wales on Sunday that they’re a facet that must be taken very significantly and Ryles stated the Wallabies have been focusing rather a lot on defence this week.
If the Wales match is something to go by, openside flanker Tom Hooper should get by way of rather a lot of tackling on Sunday and he stated he had famous a marked enchancment within the Fijians this yr.
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“They were always a team you sort of had to keep two scores on just in case they pulled something out of their clacker and went the full field,” he stated.
“But now, you saw on the weekend, it wasn’t just miracle balls, it wasn’t Hail Marys, it was really grafting and making those nice line breaks, consolidating that ball and then going on again.
“So they’re a smart footy team now and they’ve got big athletes. So we’re going to have to nullify that and defend really well.” (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, enhancing by Toby Davis)
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