Christian Lealiifano has cast doubt over his physical capacity to start three straight games if the Wallabies go all the way to the Rugby World Cup final.
Cancer survivor Lealiifano said it’s “hard to say” if he is ready for that sort of load after having been carefully managed through the pool phase of the tournament.
Coach Michael Cheika this week indicated the 32-year-old had the inside running to take the problematic playmaking role in Saturday’s quarter-final against England in Oita.
Cheika indicated Lealiifano hadn’t played there more because of the need to cater for his wellbeing.
Bernard Foley started against Wales and Matt Toomua against Georgia last week, sparking criticism that the Wallabies were suffering through rotating the most important link position on the park.
Such methods may continue into the knockout phase after Lealiifano revealed his health is a day to day proposition.
The Brumbies veteran was asked if he felt ready to play three consecutive games.
“It’s hard to say. As we’ve gone, it’s just been managing each game as we go and seeing how I feel day to day,” he said.
“I guess I’d be confident to if I was called upon but I think it’s just about coming back to a week-by-week case and seeing how they go.”
Lealiifano took a year off rugby after being diagnosed with leukaemia in 2016.
He was one of the stars of Super Rugby this year, steering the Brumbies to Australian conference honours.
Lealiifano started all 18 games and played more minutes than any player in the entire competition aside from his teammate Tom Banks.
That load may have caught up with a player who has been given a different regime to his teammates in Japan.
Strength and conditioning coach Brad Harrington revealed early in the tournament that Lealiifano was faster and stronger than earlier in his career but faced challenges in terms of recovery time.
“It’s just probably the intensity of the game takes more out of him and he’s getting older too, so we’ve got to manage our older athletes a little bit differently,” Harrington said.
“That’s the sort of balancing act with him but it’s something that the Brumbies did really well this year and we’ve learned a fair bit off them.”
Lealiifano said on Tuesday that he was grateful at the flexibility afforded him.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
And from all reports that I have heard the team culture isn't great anyway. Certain players are happier, and plenty have been very unhappy and do not look forward to going to camp.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Hmmm. Crap team culture with better results of “good” team culture and poor results. I know which I’ll take.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The irony given Foley’s propensity to throw intercepts...
SD
Guest
Why is the most yellow carded player in history of Rugby Cheikas captain.?You spiel is null and void.He did not like QC ever.
Rolando
Guest
Cheika and QC are definitely OK with each other and even sparred a bit (boxing) a few years back. Cheika gave QC chances but finds Quade to be too likely to give away points (intercepts and dumb decisions near his own in-goal). Same with Fardy and Higginbotham who both had a tendency to give away penalties at the wrong end of the ground, and yes, are both their own men. Cheika’s strength has been bringing a team together who play for each other and who won’t sabotage the teams progress ( although Hooper comes close to this sometimes). Cheika deserves great recognition for this because there was a crap team culture before he arrived. For me that is an aspect of rugby that trumps the brilliant individualists.
SandBox
Roar Guru
Didn’t know that. Well we have to work with what we have then. Taking Foley was a mistake
Gareth Kidd
Roar Guru
Fwoar, I love CLL and he's playing well. However, it seems amiss they we'd take a player to the most prized tournament who's body isn't at that stage.
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
I don’t disagree. I just think it is too late to change centres now.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Can't make changes. Only injury replacements with independent verification are allowed.
PeterK
Roar Guru
more than 50% possession and more than 50% territory Wallabies lack the calibre of players to engineer long distance tries, a real lack of support play and keeping the ball alive with good passing / offloads. Sure it happens but not as often as it should. Not looking at Tuilagi as a distributor and why TK would be a good choice to stop him, he would get over the gain line against JoC, get him to commit and maybe even a winger and then offload, harder for the smaller JoC to stop this.
SandBox
Roar Guru
Yeah if we get past England and CLL is not fit for the next game against AB’s or Ireland, then we don’t have great options. Foley is out of form and confidence, and Tomua is not a specialist 10. He may well fill in for CLL adequately, but I’d send Foley packing and have QC as backup. Might be too late now to bring him in. Cheika, and the selectors, should have thought of this earlier
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
I know he’s ‘considered’ that way, but the boys on the Eggchasers have discussed it a fair bit, and apparently he actually misses around 30 per cent of his tackles at all levels and whether he plays 10 or 12. I think he’s considered a strong defender because he often goes for the big hit. Tuilagi isn’t a super strong distributor. The biggest risk is an offload, I agree. The reality is that the Wallabies are a possession based team. If we don’t get considerably more than 50 per cent possession, I would be surprised if we win.
PeterK
Roar Guru
Farrell is considered a strong defender for a flyhalf, not for a 12 though. Ford is suspect though, a true flyhalf. You could start the 2 k's together (tried in first 2 rc's) and then bring on JoC later if you don't want a new combo. I really worry about Tuilagi creating time and space for the very good and fast english wingers, JoC may well tackle him but I doubt if he can stop him gaining a lot of ground or stop his offload easily.
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
I wouldn’t go for a new centre combination in a World Cup quarterfinal, although I agree TK is the guy we need to shut down Tuilagi. On the flip side, neither Ford nor Farrell are strong defenders (is Tuilagi?). So having Kerevi rum at them for 80 mins isn’t a bad prospect either.
PeterK
Roar Guru
against England we want to shut to attack down at 13 so I would want to go for JoC 12 and TK 13 even though it is a new combo. You could go for Toomua 12 and TK 13 but this is a new combo considering how long ago they played together
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
I disagree, I’d certainly play him if he’s our best 10. We have to be thinking about winning the next match, not just the final. So play the strongest team in every knockout match. However, I’d certainly have Quade in the squad to play 10 if Lealiifano’s body gives out at any point. What’s crazy is that we never got to see whether the backline would work better with Quade at 10 rather than Lealiifano.
SandBox
Roar Guru
Not doubting he’s our best 10, but if he can’t go three straight for the finals, then they are accommodating him. It’s not meant to diminish his health issues at all. Just think a RWC isn’t the place for this
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
I don’t think they’re ‘accommodating’ him - bit of a condescending thing to say. I think that the coaching staff honestly think he’s the best 10, but unfortunately he isn’t the most durable.
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
And given that TK is our best 13, it raises the question why we’ve never seen him outside JOC? I don’t know whether that would be better than JOC/Kerevi, but surely we should have at least tried it out.
mtiger
Roar Rookie
Sad day for Australian sports that the coach who had 4 years to plan for this, had no real alternative to a champion flyhalf in Christian Lealiifano. It is not like to coach paid for all salaries himself. And he is burdening CLL to come through for him. Is it fair?