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Two ex-Wallabies react to Liam Wright’s injury and another captaincy change
By Finn Morton
Former Wallabies Justin Harrison and Stephen Hoiles have reacted to the unfortunate news that last week’s Australia captain Liam Wright will miss Saturday’s clash with Wales through injury.
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Wright, 26, was initially focused on just making Australia’s matchday 23 but was surprisingly named captain for the Test in Sydney. The loose forward put in a strong performance at blindside flanker as the Wallabies held on for a memorable 25-16 win.
It seemed like a night that was full of nothing but positives for both Wright and the team as a collective, but there has since been a forced changing of the guard after last week’s skipper was sidelined with a devastating injury.
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ACT Brumbies bruiser Charlie Cale comes into the starting side at No. 8, with Rob Valetini shifting to blindside flanker to fill the hole left by Wright’s absence. Queenslander Fraser McReight has retained his spot on the openside.
Coach Joe Schmidt confirmed on Thursday that while Wright would miss Saturday’s Test in Melbourne, the backrower was expected to recover in time for next week’s clash with Georgia back in Sydney. But for now, the Aussies will turn to that new look backrow.
“Liam Wright was picked because Joe Schmidt opened said he’s the sort of person that people galvanise around and follow through all sorts of difficult situations and Liam Wright himself has had to deal with all sorts of adversity getting onto that field,” Justin Harrison said on Stan Sports’ Rugby Heaven.
“We’re enormously disappointed for him, there’s no two ways about it. He had a fantastic combination with Queensland Reds backrow McReight and [Harry] Wilson, they were the form backrow from an Australian perspective, I genuinely believe that.
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“He deserved his captaincy, it was such a pleasure to see him take the field as captain and lead our nation into a new era of rugby. We just hope that he can get back onto the field as soon as possible”
Schmidt and the rest of the Wallabies coaching staff have also had to pick their second captain in as many Tests, but it wasn’t a surprise to see James Slipper take up that role.
The Australia coach let out a chuckle at Thursday’s team announcement press conference when this journalist asked him about Slipper’s appointment. There’s no one more experienced and valuable to take on that responsibility for at least one week.
Slipper has captained the Wallabies 14 times before and will do so again at AAMI Park. The veteran prop was one of six men to captain the Aussies under former coach Eddie Jones last year and is held in high regard by the playing group.
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“Watching from the stands on Saturday night, Slipper went down with a knee injury and it didn’t look good initially, then in true James Slipper fashion they strap it up, he plays on and he’s back on the field next week as he always does.
“It was kind of communicated pretty well last week that Liam Wright was the captain for last week and I think he earned that through his performance in Super Rugby,” Stephen Hoiles explained.
“There’s different types of leaders but I think Liam Wright and James Slipper lead by actions type, and it almost shows you what Joe Schmidt is after – he’s not after talking and fanfare, he just wants the work done.
“Both those guys were really good last week.”
I saw James slipper start a game (that’s start a game, we’re talking waiting for kick off) with two black eyes damn near swollen shut.
It was the most Australian thing I’ve ever bloody seen.