Sharpe over sore ankle
Lineout chief Nathan Sharpe has completed his first full training session with the Wallabies after injuring his ankle in last weekend's loss to South Africa in Pretoria.
Sharpe has declared the ankle fine, a relief for Australia as they look to get their lineout right for the clash with the Springboks in Bloemfontein this Saturday (0100 Sunday AEST).
The Western Force captain said the inclusion of experienced second row partner Mark Chisholm and big No.8 Ben McCalman would also aid the Wallabies' set-piece.
"They've been in the Tri-Nations squad from the outset so you'd expect them to have a fairly good understanding of what's going on," he said.
Centre Matt Giteau is also expected to be right after rolling his ankle at training this week.
The Australian side flew from their training base in Durban to the highveld city of Bloemfontein on Thursday and will have a final training run at Vodacom Park on Friday.
The Wallabies have won once in three matches in the city, in 1933, and haven't played a Test there since 1996, although the players are familiar with the venue through Super 14 games against the Cheetahs.
Sharpe said the Australians viewed last weekend's 44-31 loss at Loftus Versfeld as one that got away.
"We've probably had a couple of those this year and they're very hard lessons to learn," he said.
Post a comment about this article
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.