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Wallabies star dealt injury blow during Super Rugby suspension

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images for SUNWOLVES)

The Brumbies may be out of action due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, but squad captain Allan Alaalatoa is expected to be sidelined for longer than most.

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The 26-year-old prop broke his arm in his side’s 47-14 victory over the Waratahs in Canberra on Sunday, the final match of Super Rugby before the competition was suspended indefinitely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As it remains unclear how many of the Brumbies’ scheduled fixtures are set to be cancelled, it also remains unknown how many matches Alaalatoa will miss through injury, if any.

Players who suffer from broken arms usually take up to six weeks to recover.

“The Brumbies can confirm that captain Allan Alaalatoa suffered a broken arm in the match against the Waratahs. Get well soon skip!,” the club tweeted late Monday.

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After leaving the field in the first half of his side’s bonus-point win, the 37-test Wallaby was seen wearing a sling.

He isn’t the only Brumbies star facing a stint on the sidelines, as wing Toni Pulu’s season is in jeopardy after re-injuring a troublesome shoulder against the Sunwolves two weeks ago.

“Some players just can’t take a trick with injury and luck. TP is unfortunately one of those players,” Brumbies head coach Dan McKellar said in the wake of his team’s defeat.

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“He’s an important player in our group. An experienced outside back who was starting to get back to full fitness. Injuries happen and he just needs to get his shoulder fixed and then get back into it. He’s still got plenty of good footy ahead of him.”

The decision to halt Super Rugby after seven rounds of action came following the New Zealand Government’s decision on Saturday to force travellers coming into the country to self-isolate for 14 days.

Australia followed suit with similar measures the next day.

As it stands, the Brumbies currently lie in second place on the overall Super Rugby standings, one point shy of the table-topping Sharks.

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Flankly 1 hour 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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