All Blacks prop George Bower has been ruled out of rugby for the rest of the year with a knee injury.
The Crusaders’ loosehead prop injured his ACL in the last minute of the Crusaders’ Super Rugby Pacific match against the Reds in Brisbane on March 31.
Like fellow All Black and Crusader Sevu Reece, Bower required season-ending surgery and won’t be available for this year’s World Cup in France. He had a successful operation last week. He had an ACL reconstruction. He’s mending well, both him and Sevu are together on the rehab. These two are a big loss for the Crusaders and the All Blacks in a world cup year.
WARATAHS FLANKER SUSPENSION.
The World Cup hopes of Waratahs flanker Lachie Swinton are in jeopardy after he was hit with a seven-week suspension for a dangerous tackle, which will see him miss the rest of the Super Rugby Pacific regular season.
Swinton was cited for a late, high tackle on Force No 10 Jake Strachan during the opening minute of NSW’s win over the WA side at Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Saturday, which saw Strachan fail to finish the game due to concussion.
The incident was somehow not spotted by the match officials during the game but the Sanzaar judicial committee didn’t miss Swinton in upholding the citing after a hearing on Tuesday night, with chair Helen Morgan slamming the tackle as “highly dangerous” and worthy of a top-end, 10-week suspension.
The 26-year-old flanker has his suspension reduced to seven weeks after the judicial committee accounted for mitigating factors such as remorse and conduct at the hearing, but Swinton’s ban is the longest handed down to an Australian since Brumbies wing Chance Peni was hit with a seven-week ban in 2018.
Swinton will miss the remaining seven Super Rugby games for NSW and only be eligible to play in the first week of the Super Rugby final. That means the Waratahs will have to qualify for the playoffs Swinton to play for the side again this year.
They currently sit in ninth and Swinton’s absence won’t make the job of finishing in the top eight any easier.
The seven-week ban will also leave the World Cup hopes of Swinton in the balance. The seven-test flanker won a belated call-up from Eddie Jones for the Wallabies’ pre-World Cup camp on the Gold Coast this week after initially missing selection. It is not the first lengthy ban handed down to Swinton. The firebrand forward was banned for four weeks after being sent off for a high shot in his test debut in 2020, when the Wallabies beat the All Blacks in Brisbane.
SACKED ALL BLACK ASSISTANT COACH FINDS A JOB.
Sacked All Blacks assistant Brad Mooar’s coaching comeback continues to gather pace with a key role for the World XV’s looming clash with the British Barbarians.
His old mate Steve Hansen is in charge of the World XV and has called up Mooar to help prepare the star-studded side to take on Eddie Jones’ Baabaas in a match to be played at Twickenham on May 29. Mooar was hired as an attack consultant by Scotland following his All Black sacking for the recent Six Nations championship, the same role he held for the All Blacks from 2020 to 2022. Moaar, has had coaching experience with the Crusaders and Welsh outfit Scarlets.
Comments