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Wasps confirm extent of Fekitoa injury and it's bad news for Tonga

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Wasps midfielder Malakai Fekitoa will need surgery on his dislocated shoulder and will be sidelined for months, ruling the former All Blacks player out of an XV Test debut for Tonga in the autumn tests against Scotland and England. The 29-year-old was injured in last weekend’s 44-8 Premiership win over Bristol.

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Four days on from that 41st-minute exit, Wasps boss Lee Blackett confirmed the grim prognosis for Fekitoa who had qualified to switch his international rugby allegiance to Tonga by playing in last June’s Olympic sevens qualifying event in Monaco.

Blackett explained at a club media briefing: “Malakai has dislocated his shoulder and will need surgery. It will be months rather than weeks and he will be out for a significant time. 

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“It is a blow to lose someone who is a talisman for us and it will open up opportunities for guys to come in. He is the ultimate team man and leads the backline, but some of the young guys will get a chance now.

“We will explore looking at bringing someone in and also things we can do within the squad to move people into the centre. We will look around but if we don’t feel we can add to the group we won’t bring them in. We have options in the squad and Josh Bassett playing at 13 is something we are exploring. Thomas Youngs has done things in the backline before.”

Blackett has to quickly find a new centre combination for Saturday’s trip to Newcastle, an opposition that defeated Bath last time out. “The Newcastle defence is very aggressive and has been set up well by Nick Easter and come at you and that is why we cannot get carried away with the win over Bristol. 

“People shouldn’t get carried away with some of the early wins particularly after a Lions tour and look at who missing for Exeter and they will bounce back. As a league, this is the most competitive Premiership.”

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AM 6 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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