|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Sitting out Eales to miss Queensland's Lions clash
BRISBANE (Reuters) -- Australian captain John Eales was Thursday left out of the Queensland team to play the touring British and Irish Lions at Ballymore on Saturday. Eales withdrew from the match to save himself for the upcoming test series after aggravating an old Achilles problem playing for Australia in last Saturday's 41-29 win over New Zealand Maori. Eales said he had no choice other than to miss the match but expected to play in the first test against the Lions in Brisbane on June 30. "Hopefully I'll be right for the test," Eales said. "It's something that will be with me for the duration of the season and I'll just have to manage it as best I can. "It's not unusual for a footballer to have injuries that they have to put up with through a season and it's just something I'll have to put up with." Eales has still to decide whether or not to retire at the end of the season. "I'll play out this year and see how I feel at the end of it on whether to go on or for how much longer," said Eales, who made his debut as a 21-year-old against Wales in 1991. "It's one of those decisions that you can't judge either on how old you are or how many games you've played, you've just got to judge it on when you're ready to move on." Eales, who turns 31 three days before the first test, has achieved almost every honor in the game during a test career spanning a decade. He won the World Cup with Australia in 1991, then captained the Wallabies to a second World Cup title in 1999. He has also led Australia to victory against every major test-playing nation and has improved with age, doing things no other lock has even dreamt of. Two years ago, the athletic Eales saved a vital penalty kick in a Super 12 match when he leapt above the cross bar and caught the ball before it sailed over. Last season, Eales calmly slotted over a last-minute sideline penalty to give Australia a one-point victory over New Zealand while his regular kicker was off the field injured. The only thing missing from Eales's list of accomplishments is a win over the Lions. Eales was still playing colts rugby when the Lions last toured Australia in 1989 and the giant lock said he was relishing the chance to play against them. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to play against the Lions," Eales said. Pinnacle of the game "The World Cup is the pinnacle of the game, there's no doubt about that, that's what our whole game heads towards every four years. "It's our version of the Olympics, if you like, but obviously the Lions is a unique challenge for us. "It's different to a Tri-Nations tournament, it's different to a Six Nations tournament (in Europe), it really is a unique challenge." If the Wallabies can beat the Lions, the temptation would be there for Eales to hang up his boots after the Tri Nations with New Zealand and South Africa. Australia is scheduled to undertake a long end-of-season tour to North America and Europe to kick-start their preparations for the 2003 World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand and Eales would prefer to stay home. But Eales may be having second thoughts. He had previously said he wanted to quit at the end of this year's Tri-Nations but watching the Sydney Olympics last year caused him to pause and re-think his future. "It's not an easy decision," he said. "What you're giving up is something that's been a very special part of your life for a very long period of time and it'll be very hard to walk away from." Herbert takes captaincy Eales' place in the Queensland team was taken by fellow Wallaby Mark Connors with outside center Daniel Herbert taking over the captaincy. Wallaby fullback Chris Latham and test winger Ben Tune were both ruled out earlier in the week because of injury while replacement winger Ricky Nalatu withdrew Thursday with a shoulder injury and was replaced by David McCallum. Replacements, winger Nathan Williams and flyhalf Shane Drahm, were both dropped for disciplinary reasons after missing a curfew following the Queensland President's XV's loss to the Lions in Townsville on Tuesday. Real test Despite the late withdrawals, the Queensland Reds will still provide the Lions with their first real test on tour after their landslide wins over Western Australia (116-10) and the President's XV (83-6). Queensland reached the semifinals of this year's provincial Super 12 championship and has nine regular Wallabies in its starting team including six test forwards. "We haven't had a great build up to this match because of the fact most of our players have been in camp with the Wallabies but we'll be out there competing," said Queensland coach Mark McBain, who played for the Reds against the Lions in 1989. "Every side likes to knock off an international side and we've got a good record against international teams so we'll go from there." Herbert, who is certain to be picked in the Wallaby team to play the Lions, said he had been impressed with the Lions' performances so far on tour. He said Australia would have a better indication of how good the Lions really were after Saturday's match but warned against reading too much into the result. "We're playing against possibly one of the best teams in the world but we'll have to wait until test match time if they are in fact better than the Australian team," Herbert said. "This match gives us a look at some of their players. It's a very strong outfit that they've picked and would be close to what we'd expect they'd pick for their test team. "But I'm sure they'll be holding a few things back and probably won't be as prepared as they will be in a few weeks time but it certainly does give us something to work from." Queensland: 15-Michael Tabrett; 14-Junior Pelesafa, 13-Daniel Herbert (captain), 12-Steve Kefu, 11-David McCallum; 10-Elton Flatley, 9-Sam Cordingley; 8-Toutai Kefu, 7-David Croft, 6-Matt Cockbain, 5-Mark Connors, 4-Nathan Sharpe, 3-Glenn Panoho, 2-Michael Foley, 1-Nick Stiles. Replacements: 16-Ben Wakely, 17-Andrew Scotney, 18-Jason Ramsamy, 19-John Roe, 20-Mike Mitchell, 21-Simon Kerr, 22-Sean Hardman.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
