Influential Australian scrumhalf Will Genia has suffered a broken arm and his coach, Michael Cheika, has intimated that the injury which the player suffered during the Wallabies 26-21 second test defeat was the result of him being blindsided by a hit from an Irish player.
Although Cheika did not name Cian Healy as the player responsible for what he called a "king hit", and the Wallabies won't be asking World Rugby look at incident, the Australian coach's comments could conceivably draw the attention of the citing commissioner, Mike O'Leary of New Zealand. He has a 48 hour window to decide whether any player should be cited for incidents in the game.
“Well, we ran the play down the front and Willy’s the decoy around the back and he got (a) king hit from the side - looked like a shoulder - and when you’re not expecting it that’s what happens,” Cheika said. “So Hoops (captain Michael Hooper) went down the front, Willy ran around the back - I’m not sure who it was from the other team that came in and hit him - and he jammed his arm and broke it.”
Another concern is lock Adam Coleman, who looked groggy before leaving the field of play early after a collision with Rob Kearney in the second half. "Coleman has got a very nice golf ball on the side of his face," Cheika said. "We will get him off for some scans and check to see, and we have to do that pretty soon because sometimes if that's a cheekbone or eye socket he can't fly so we'll just have to check and see where he's at."
Cheika had no complaints with the result.
“They had a lot of possession and we defended well on the line and our work ethic was good,” Cheika said. “But in general there were too many soft penalties which piggy-backed them into position or into points.”
Australian captain Michael Hooper said: "We put ourselves in with a chance to win it right at the end but left so much out there during that middle 50 in the game. I'm aware that this team can be so great, we've got so many threats across the field and we were just a bit short there tonight. Our kicking probably summed up how the game went. Just not in the right spot. Being 30 centimetres off the mark."
