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Waratahs prepare for double personnel blow

Michael Hooper is expected to be out for at least a month with a hamstring injury but Simon Cron said it will be “a bit of a nanny state” if the Waratahs are without Israel Folau in a crunch Super Rugby clash with the Rebels on Friday. 

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Captain Hooper limped out of Australia’s defeat to Ireland in the final Test in Sydney on Saturday and is not expected to play any further part in the regular Super Rugby season.

“I know our physios are working with the Wallabies physios around the time frames and from what I understand it’s minimum this stage four weeks,” said Waratahs forwards coach Cron.

“We’d hope to have him back in our finals series ideally. It’s very early, so they’ll keep working through it.”

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Wallabies full-back Folau faces a World Rugby disciplinary hearing after he was cited for an early aerial challenge with Peter O’Mahony.

Folau was also sin-binned for another incident involving the Ireland captain and Cron does not believe he should face further punishment ahead of the Australian Conference leaders’ showdown with the second-placed Rebels.

“I’d be stunned if he’s not available,” he said. “Personally, I think it’s an interesting decision to even send him there [to a disciplinary].

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“They’ve made that call, so he’ll go and defend himself. You probably saw it, personally I think if you’re in the air and you’re three foot off the ground, four feet off the ground, he’s quite high off the ground.

“I would think they would look at their one-man lifting technique. I know we do a lot of it but I’d be surprised. It’d be a bit of a nanny state if they pull him.”

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Nickers 22 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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