Desperate prop Guy Shepherdson's rotten luck has continued, throwing another scare into the Wallabies camp before the Rugby World Cup kicks off.

Shepherdson, returning from knee surgery, suffered a bad cork to his left thigh in a nasty training mishap at Montpellier's Stade Yves-du-Manoir.

The rising tight-head collided heavily with fellow Brumbies forward Mark Chisholm during a defensive drill and writhed in pain on the ground.

He tried stretching his quad muscle several times and unsuccessfully tried to rejoin the drill before throwing his sun visor down in disgust.

Shepherdson then talked with Wallabies medico Martin Raftery.

Although he looked out of sorts, the 25-year-old managed to take part in some of the rest of the session away from the glare of reporters who were evicted after 20 minutes.

A Wallabies spokesman said Raftery believed Shepherdson's leg should be right after a few days but he would need to rest it from training on Sunday.

"It will be suck it and see," said the spokesman.

It's the latest worry after Shepherdson entered his first World Cup campaign with a cloud hovering after undergoing an arthroscope last month.

The 117kg powerhouse almost missed the July 21 Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup decider with a knee strain but managed to prove his fitness.

He was absent from the Wallabies rigorous five-day boot camp in south-east Queensland and played a limited role in team sessions since.

But before this afternoon's training run, coach John Connolly said all his squad, including Shepherdson, would be available for selection for the tournament opener against Japan in Lyon on Saturday.

While keen to play his full strength outfit, Connolly indicated Shepherdson could be eased back off the bench, meaning regular benchman Al Baxter would start.

If Shepherdson were scratched it would leave Australia with a major headache as it would force Greg Holmes, a specialist loose-head, to sit on the bench and cover both sides of the scrum.

Ironically, the injury came just three hours after Wallabies fullback Chris Latham praised the intensity at training.

"As an Australian team we always like to train the way we play, so obviously we need to get that intensity at training and that's what we really strive for," he said.

"If we can replicate that at training, when we get into games we'll find game time hopefully a bit easier for it."

At Australia's first official RWC 2007 press conference, some in the local media were more interested in the Wallabies' thoughts of their pleasant surroundings and encouraging support in Montpellier than their preparations.

George Gregan was even asked whether French beer was better than Australian ales.

"We've had a couple of beers. 1664's a good drop," he replied.

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