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Quade Cooper injury mars Wallabies win over gritty Pumas
By AAP
The Wallabies have opened their Rugby Championship campaign with a rousing 41-26 victory over Argentina but look to have lost playmaker Quade Cooper for the series.
Centre Len Ikitau crossed for their fifth try five minutes after full-time in Mendoza to snare a bonus point as the Wallabies piled on 31 points in the second half.
The Australians entered the Test without talismanic captain Michael Hooper, who withdrew from the tour the day before the game for mental health reasons.
And they lost another of their most experienced players when playmaker Cooper slipped on the turf while in attack seven minutes into the second half.
The 34-year-old had already missed the losing England series with a calf injury but appeared to grasp at his ankle in obvious pain, and was later be seen in a moon-boot.
But the Wallabies regrouped with Hooper's replacement Fraser McReight dragged across the line by barn-storming Test debutant Jed Holloway.
A penalty try in the 62nd minute awarded by whistle-happy Scottish referee Mike Adamson put the visitors to within two points.
Cooper's replacement Reece Hodge then banged over a long-range penalty for the Wallabies to take the lead, 27-26, for the first time in the match.
Hooker Folau Fainga'a, in his best performance in the gold jersey, picked up the ball off the back of a maul and charged over, with Hodge adding the extras.
The opening half was a frustrating stop-start affair with a 10-3 penalty count against the Wallabies, who trailed 19-10 at the break.
The Australians dominated possession and territory but errors and poor discipline again stopped them from maximising their opportunities.
Argentina, who are coached by former Wallabies mentor Michael Cheika, got off to their best possible start with Pablo Matera crossing in the sixth minute.
The Wallabies countered through winger Jordan Petaia but kept the home side in the game through sharp-shooter Emiliano Boffelli, who booted four penalties for the game.
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Latest Comments
I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).
Number Of Clubs:
1526
Registered+Unregistered Players:
651146
Number of Referees:
3460
Pre-teen Male Players:
320842
Pre-teen Female Player:
4522
Teen Male Player:
199213
Teen Female Player:
4906
Senior Male Player:
113174
Senior Female Player:
8489
Total Male Player:
633229
Total Female Player:
17917
So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.
So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).
https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.
The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.
In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.
Go to commentsOk I understand. Give them my number please Nick.
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