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'Firstly we're devastated for Les' - Brumbies confirm prop's season ending injury

Brumbies players pray together after the 2019 Super Rugby match between the Brumbies and the Bulls. (Photo by Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

The Brumbies have said they ‘are saddened to confirm’ that Les Leulua’iali-Makin has ruptured his achilles while playing in Japan, which will rule him out of the 2020 Super Rugby season.

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The tighthead prop was due to rejoin the side ahead of this week’s round one clash against the Reds at GIO Stadium but will instead undergo surgery on his injury.

While the club will look at replacement options, promising young front rower, Bo Abra, will continue to train with the Super Rugby squad as he has done throughout the pre-season in Leulua’iali’i-Makin’s absence.

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said: “Firstly we’re devastated for Les. He’s represented the jersey 50 times and is such a big part of the organisation and well loved by the playing group and staff.”

“As a club, we will be doing all we can to help support him through his surgery and our medical staff will be there to help him with his rehab in order to get him back on the field as soon as possible.

“We’ll be having a look around to see who’s available as a replacement but we are happy with how Bo Abra is progressing after training with our squad during pre-season.”

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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