Knuckles fumes over Latham injury

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clontaago

First Grader
AUSTRALIA coach John Connolly is demanding answers from predecessor Eddie Jones after full back Chris Latham suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury on Saturday.

Preliminary scans found Latham tore both his anterior cruciate and medial ligaments at Queensland Reds training on Saturday.

Latham was apparently hurt after scoring a try in a game at training.

The Reds said today early reports indicated Latham would require a knee reconstruction and be out for the entire Super 14 season.

The 31-year-old will visit a specialist on Wednesday.

Reds head coach and ex-Wallabies mentor Jones said Latham was the victim of a "freak accident".

"It was just one of those freak accidents that happens in sport," Jones said.

Connolly said Latham had only just finished with a Wallabies three-day training camp in Canberra.

"We're going to ask for a report out of Queensland about how it happened because he was in the 22 RPA group supposedly staying out of all contact," he said on ABC radio.

"It happened on Saturday the day after he'd had a three-day camp at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) with us. We've got to get a full report out of it to understand exactly what happened."

Connolly said although Latham faced a lengthy rehabilitation, he was still hopeful he would be available for the Rugby World Cup, which starts in France in September.

"We haven't got the full picture yet," he said.

"He's seeing Peter Morris, a specialist, again on Wednesday but yes he has to have his ACL done and it is very disappointing.

"We have got six months, so we have to make sure we find the best rehab for him and get him back on deck, but these things do take time."

A veteran of 72 Tests and 110 Queensland caps, Latham has become a mainstay of the Australian backline for several years and a key figure in the Wallabies' Rugby World Cup hopes.

The Super 14 season starts next month and ends in May.

Australia plays Tests in June against Wales and Fiji before the Tri-Nations series with New Zealand and South Africa.

Australia's backline depth has already been weakened after the decision to allow Mat Rogers to return to rugby league with NRL newcomer Gold Coast Titans.

The Wallabies' opening Rugby World Cup game is against Japan in Lyon on September 9.

Australia's Rugby World Cup campaign had already started off on the wrong foot with Lote Tuqiri among four players sent home from the training camp in Canberra after failing fitness tests.

Wingers Tuqiri and Mark Gerrard, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, and centre Morgan Turinui returned to their home states early to undertake fitness programs after failing to meet the required fitness levels.

Latham's injury could be a chance for league recruit Clinton Schifcofske to make his mark for Reds at full back.

The 31-year-old ex-Canberra Raiders and Queensland State of Origin custodian could be a Rugby World Cup bolter, with his goalkicking skills a bonus.
 
All is not well in camp wobbily.

Fancy trying to blame a coach for an acident. It could have happened to latham any time.

I wouldn't mind any of the 4 players that were sent home being in a manly jumper and don't be surprised if 3 out of 4 go to league after the world cup.
 
Tookey, the point is he was suppossed to be in the non contact group for training. He should not have been in the position to injure himself
 
Tookey, the point is he was suppossed to be in the non contact group for training. He should not have been in the position to injure himself

I couldn't imagine Jones would have deliberately risked latham in contact training because he is as important for QLD as he is to the wallabies.

I assumed that they may have just been playing touch football when he did his knee which really isn't contact. He could also have simply been mucking around diving over the tryline pretending to score a try?

Connolly is under enormous pressure at the moment with the wallabies being a shambles in the world cup year. He is starting to look already for excuses when we don"t make the semis in the WC and no doubt will acuse Jones of sour grapes and deliberately sabotaging the wallaby side.
 
they are just making excuses- Knuckles seems like a hard nosed bloke but he won't help the Wallabies at all- they are **** and it's a **** game- ask John O'Neil about what he thinks of the future of the code and he is a rugby union man originally.
 
Having said that, I used to play touch footy with Lee Hopkins and Brad Drew and it was written in their contracts that they werent even allowed to play touch footy. The silly bastards still did though.

Aust cricketers arent allowed to snow or water ski.
 
On one occassion I did a hammy during sex. I wonder if there was a clause relating to that in Warnys contract.

Come to think of it there may well have been clauses aimed at preventing injuries to his spin fingers from :
a) breaking nail on the ring pull of a baked beans can
b) 3rd degree burns from falling alseep with a lit ciggy in hand
c) eventual arthritis from too many hours text messaging loved ones
 
Having said that, I used to play touch footy with Lee Hopkins and Brad Drew and it was written in their contracts that they werent even allowed to play touch footy. The silly bastards still did though.

Aust cricketers arent allowed to snow or water ski.

That reminds me of when hoppa turned out for Parra rugby 5th grade. He thought that by wearing head gear no-one would recognise who he was.

Speaking of Hoppa he is now driving a mini bus. My son and his friends hired him at collaroy recenty to the city. He cut someone off on the harbour bridge and the other bloke was giving hoppa a mouthful until he saw who he was yelling at and nearly **** himself.
 
On one occassion I did a hammy during sex. I wonder if there was a clause relating to that in Warnys contract.

Come to think of it there may well have been clauses aimed at preventing injuries to his spin fingers from :
a) breaking nail on the ring pull of a baked beans can
b) 3rd degree burns from falling alseep with a lit ciggy in hand
c) eventual arthritis from too many hours text messaging loved ones
I'd imagine that inflatable phallic toy probably caused a fair bit of brain damage too.
 
Well I saw the footage of the training mishap on the news this morning and it was pretty much full contact, not touch.

I have to agree with Knuckles here, this could have been avoided.

I know that this could have happened during the Super 14 season but the reason for not allowing full contact at this time of the year is because players arent at full physical strength I guess.
 
My ACL went in a very minor tackle. I'd been involved in much bigger. It's just one of those things that can happen.

Does anyone remember Horan going down in Durban in the Super 10 final, not a hand laid on him and his ACL was ruptured and kneecap dislocated?
 
They blamed the pitch surface for Hodges's injury.
A guy on the radio this morning said that Lathams injury is something that can happen without diving , twisting . It can be a very inconspicuise (bad spelling) thing that can do the damage , so walking to the **** house can cause this type of injury.

Anyway , with him or without him , the Wallabies are still ****ed.
 
He has stated that he will be back in time for the World Cup and is actually looking at the rest as a good thing.

If he can regain fitness it could be a blessing in disguise.
 
I remember Robbie Kearns having to pull out of a state of origin due to falling off a horse at the training camp before hand....not that he would've been any great loss
 
If Hewatt doesn't get a go now, he never will. If Schifcoske (??) gets in ahead of him I'll give up on the Wallabies.
 
agreed chip and chase- I don't know who he has pissed off but surely he can't be overlooked again. They say his defence is suspect but I haven't seen too much evidence of that- just some great tries and brilliant conversions
 
the whole Wallabies side is suspect.

Bring back Lynah , Horan , Campo , Eales , Kearns , Farr-Jones.
Ahhhhh , now that was a classy Wallabies outfit.
 
So the glue that has held the Wallabies together for 2 years is out for six months.

Australia now officially only has one forward (Vickerman) and one back (Larkham). Outstanding.

Connelly was a sh*t choice for coach. I'm already sick of seeing his ugly fat head on the TV with the gold chains around his neck and collar-up polo shirts.

Oh, and Australia will struggle to make the semis, but fluke it off the back of some Larkham brilliance in every game, then we'll face the Kiwis in the semis, and Latham will pull out a miracle interception off Dan Carter, run the length of the field and win the game for Australia.

Then we'll get done by a Freddy Michelak field goal in the final. '03 WC deja vu!
 

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