Pocock in doubt for England test
NEWS: Australia’s 26-7 win over Italy has been accompanied by a hefty price.
The Wallabies were far from their best in Padova but were able to run in four tries – two coming from Marika Koroibete.
The side produced resolute defending to keep Italy at bay as they secured a fourth win in 12 Tests for Australia this year.
Next up for Australia is a crucial Test against England and its seems like star No.8 David Pocock could miss next week’s fixture.
The No.8 left the field 51st minute for an HIA, however, head coach Cheika revealed that Pocock sustained a neck injury.
Pocock already missed the Wallabies’ win over the Springboks in September with neck issues.
Losing Pocock ahead of the Twickenham Test will be devastating for the Wallabies.
“I don’t know [the severity of the injury] yet,” Cheika told reporters after the win against Italy.
“He’s obviously got a pretty nasty stinger on his neck [and] it was giving him pain down his arm.
“We’ll just see what happens and see how he recovers in the next couple of days,”
Aside from the Pocock situation, there were some positive for Micheal Cheika.
The coach praised his side’s defending display and admitted the physical battle was good ahead of the England Test.
The clash between England ad Wallabies is a meeting with Cheika’s old adversary Eddie Jones, and its the Wallabies head coach is relishing the contest.
“I enjoyed it, it was physical,” he told reporters.
“Defensively I thought we were really good, we got up and looked like we were enjoying our defence.
“The Italians brought a lot of physical ball carrying, they’ve got big back-rowers, they carry the ball hard, and we looked good.
“We created a few things in attack, we had a couple of chances we could have been slicker on with our finishing but where we are right now we’ve just got to keep grinding, keep at it, do the things we know that we’ve been working on to do well, and keep bringing it.
“There was a lot about that win, considering the situation of the season, that I was very pleased about.
“Now we have to look to see what we need next week. We love going to Twickenham, love the crowd hating us, so let’s get it on!”
