Junior Wallabies fly in injury reinforcements to South Africa

The Junior Wallabies are still counting the cost of last Thursday’s pool loss to Ireland at the Junior World Championship. Losing 10-30 in the Paarl, they slipped to third place in their group and now must beat England next Tuesday in Athlone to retain any hopes of making the semi-finals.

Meantime, injuries sustained in the defeat to the Irish have resulted in head coach Nathan Grey putting in a call home to fly in two call-ups from Sydney.

A statement read: “Junior Wallabies head coach Nathan Grey has called up NSW Waratahs forwards Clem Halaholo and Tevita Alatini to join the squad in South Africa for the remainder of the World Rugby U20 Championship 2023.

“The Waratahs duo will replace Jhy Legg (ankle) and Massimo de Lutiis (hamstring), who both succumbed to injury in Thursday's 30-10 defeat to Ireland at Paarl Gymnasium.”

Grey said: "It's a very disappointing outcome for Jhy and Massimo, who were playing great rugby and making a significant contribution to our team.

“There is no question this tournament is tough and every team will face setbacks that they need to overcome. We will take this disappointment in our stride, bring in cover from back home, and prepare for the next challenge.”

It emerged later on Saturday in Cape Town that the Junior Wallabies should have been playing against a 14-man Ireland for 45 minutes in Paarl.

Irish back-rower James McNabney was cited for a high tackle in the 35th minute, foul play that was missed at the time by the referee and the TMO.

That occurred when Australia were ahead in the Pool B encounter and rather than have the forward sanctioned there and then and Ireland having to play the remaining time with 14 players, Richie Murphy’s team played on with the full complement of players.  

Ireland led 11-10 at the interval and were to ultimately win 30-10 in a game that did finish with them eventually reduced to 14 as sub Rory Telfer was yellow-carded late on.

That sin-binning was quickly upgraded to a red card offence when examined in the new 10-minute yellow card review window now allowed for by the TMO bunker.