Head coach Joe Schmidt faces an anxious wait on the extent of centre Joseph Suaalii’s arm injury during Australia’s defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield.
Suaalii left the field on Sunday clutching his right arm after a tackle on Scotland skipper Sione Tuipulotu, adding injury concerns to a disappointing end of the Wallabies’ Grand Slam aspirations.
The Aussies now await news on the 21-year-old’s fitness ahead of their tour finale against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.
Wallabies legend Tim Horan, quoted by the UK’s Daily Mail, raised immediate alarm bells. “As soon as he made the hit, his right wrist, he held up,” he said. “Straight away he went off.
“Tuipulotu had a bit of a laugh with him. That’s huge. If he has a broken arm or broken wrist that’s eight to 10 weeks at least. That’s probably season over.”
RECAP: Scotland end Wallabies’ Grand Slam bid
Schmidt has remained optimistic while acknowledging the challenging circumstances. “We were already a little bit glued together,” Schmidt said, referencing the pre-match losses of hooker Matt Faessler and lock Jeremy Williams.
“Scotland are a good side and, hopefully, people can still see there’s some quality starting to be built through an Australian side that’s actually starting to show a bit of depth, albeit with some pretty inexperienced players.”
However, the coach highlighted execution issues that proved costly: “We made some good line breaks and got nothing off the back of them, kicked one away, knocked one on, and you’ve got to be better than that in a tight game.
“I think our skill execution was a bit off today.”
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
