Matt Toomua
The Brumbies hopes of reaching the 2014 Super Rugby finals have been dealt a blow as Wallabies star Matt Toomua has joined an joined a growing list of casualties.
The Canberra based Super Rugby franchise are now feeling the cost of a three week break for the June Internationals which has left several key players in doubt for this week’s match against the Waratahs on Saturday.
Toomua (adductor), Josh Mann-Rea (hamstring) and Joseph Tomane (cheekbone), will all have scans on Monday to determine whether they will be able to play against the Waratahs at ANZ Stadium.
Pat McCabe has a shoulder problem and is being considered as a 50-50 chance to play while Sam Carter is still wearing a moon boot and is in a race to reach fitness for the match against the Western Force on 11 July.
rugbyweek
The Brumbies injuries started early in the June Internationals as Stephen Moore injured his knee playing in the first Wallabies Test and has been ruled out for the season.
The ACT side are sweating on scan results for Mann-Rea as if he is ruled out the Brumbies will have a crisis at Hooker with Moore and Siliva Siliva (knee and ankle) already out of action for the rest of the year.
The Brumbies could potentially use prop Ruaidhri Murphy as back up hooker or call up Luke Holmes.
One bit of good news for the Brumbies is that prop Ben Alexander is fit again after missing the internationals to recover from a neck problem.
“Moore’s out, Carter’s out, Mann-Rea potential, Toomua has adductor strain, McCabe is about 50-50 at best … put them together and it’s going to be a big week,” Brumbies director of rugby Laurie Fisher told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’ll rely on what we do, and the depth of our squad. It will test character and spirit.”
“Whatever 15 or 23 we put out there, we’ll have a red-hot crack. We just have to wait to see who we can put on that team list.”
“We might get a whole heap of good news, we might get a whole heap of bad news, or we might get a bit of both.”
“We’ve got four players who are on the doubtful list at this stage … it’s going to be a massive test for the work we’ve done in the last two or three years.”
The Brumbies will also have to work out how to tackle new Wallabies star Skelton who scored on his Test debut against France.
“We just have to defend well, we have to play the game with good tempo and control possession,” Fisher said.
“You can’t single (Skelton) out, whoever has the job of tackling him has to tackle him. If you give him a run off and you let him off, you’re in trouble.”
“There’s no special tactics, tackling is tackling. It doesn’t matter whether a bloke is 140 kilograms or 70 kilograms, you’ve just got to tackle the bloke.”