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Wallabies lose midfielder for rest of spring tour
By AAP
Lalakai Foketi's spring tour is over, with the Wallabies try-scorer returning to Australia with a suspected leg fracture.
While the Australians fell 30-29 to France in Paris in the second match of their five-Test European tour, Foketi finished off one of the tries of the year in the 18th minute to give his team the lead.
In a brilliant team effort the Wallabies moved the ball through the backline over 95 metres to score.
However, the Waratahs midfield ace limped off six minutes later with what was described as a shin injury, replaced by Hunter Paisami.
In a blow to their campaign, the Wallabies announced on Monday that Foketi would immediately fly home to Australia. They are yet to name his replacement.
The tourists had some positive news, however, with prop Allan Alaalatoa (concussion) and fullback Tom Banks (ankle) set to be available for their match against Italy.
Opening the tour with a win over Scotland before the France defeat, the Australians will face Italy in Florence on Sunday (AEDT).
They haven't played the Italians since a 26-7 victory in 2018.
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Latest Comments
"fl's idea, if I can speak for him to speed things up, was for it to be semifinalists first, Champions Cup (any that somehow didn't make a league semi), then Challenge's semi finalists (which would most certainly have been outside their league semi's you'd think), then perhaps the quarter finalists of each in the same manner. I don't think he was suggesting whoever next performed best in Europe but didn't make those knockouts (like those round of 16 losers), I doubt that would ever happen."
That's not quite my idea.
For a 20 team champions cup I'd have 4 teams qualify from the previous years champions cup, and 4 from the previous years challenge cup. For a 16 team champions cup I'd have 3 teams qualify from the previous years champions cup, and 1 from the previous years challenge cup.
"The problem I mainly saw with his idea (much the same as you see, that league finish is a better indicator) is that you could have one of the best candidates lose in the quarters to the eventual champions, and so miss out for someone who got an easier ride, and also finished lower in the league, perhaps in their own league, and who you beat everytime."
If teams get a tough draw in the challenge cup quarters, they should have won more pool games and so got better seeding. My system is less about finding the best teams, and more about finding the teams who perform at the highest level in european competition.
Go to commentsWalter has been permanently psychologically damaged since his wife left him and moved in with a man from Sydney.
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