Larkham in doubt

[Dddooommm123]

www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au

STEPHEN Larkham's hopes of making his return off the bench against Canada in Bordeaux on Saturday have been dashed after his injured knee became infected.In a major blow to Australia's ***le hopes, Larkham has undergone another arthroscopy and has been ruled out of their next two matches.At best he will return in time for a possible semi-final clash against the All Blacks but may have to come off the bench.

The 102-Test veteran, currently on a drip, will remain in hospital for another day or two after having surgery last night.The symptoms of the infection flared yesterday when he was due to resume running in a bid to return off the bench against Canada."We hope he will be out (of hospital) tomorrow but he definitely won't be considered for this weekend or the following weekend," coach John Connolly said."He got up yesterday morning to start running. It was sore and it as just the start of an infection and he spent the night in there getting treated."He's very disappointed obviously, he was coming along quite well.

"It was one of those freak accidents."Wallabies medical officer Dr Martin Raftery explained the infection was an unlucky result of Larkham's initial arthroscopy in Montpellier on September 16 to remove a floating bone fragment.While the infection was external, between the skin and the knee capsule, fluid needed to be flushed through the knee to ensure the infection hadn't penetrated the joint's casing.

"It's a recognised complication of surgery and whenever you do any surgery one of the risks is infection," Dr Raftery said."You have bugs on your skin and when you insert a foreign instrument into your body you can take those bugs through to your knee joint and that's what's happened."It's just unlucky."Dr Raftery said it was difficult to form a proper prognosis but confirmed a semi-final return was a best-case scenario.Larkham has not trained since September 14 and probably won't resume running for more than a week.The Wallabies five-eighth underwent an arthroscope in Montpellier nine days ago after injuring his knee during kicking practice on the eve of the group match against Wales.The Wallabies had been delighted with Larkham's progress since then, and were planning to play him off the bench for about 15 minutes against Canada before using him in the quarter-finals. Larkham was expected to start running again at training in Montpellier yesterday afternoon, local time.However, those plans were called off just before training when it was discovered he had an infection in his knee.

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if larkhams gone how do you think we'l go whol step in his shoes 10. barnes or 10 giteau with staniforth or aac at 12?? if he cant make the semis our chances will look much more slim

 

[The TRUTH]

Barnes is good enough to see us past England without too much trouble but if Bernies not back for the Semi we have zero chance of beating the Blacks.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Brodizzle]

Giteau at fly-half Staniforth at inside centre, I'd back that...

 

[Fushitsusha]

Giteau is much, MUCH better at inside centre than at flyhalf.

I think Barnes is playing well enough to secure the position through to England, and depending on his form he may or may not start against the All Blacks.

 

[Brodizzle]

Giteau is much, MUCH better at inside centre than at flyhalf.

I think Barnes is playing well enough to secure the position through to England, and depending on his form he may or may not start against the All Blacks.
[/b]

Well obviously but would you rather Giteau play fly half or have Barnes do a Carlos on us against the All Blacks, he is too young to play a World Cup semi, I very much doubt that Barnes will be able to handle a rampaging All Blacks targeting his position...he will be destroyed...

 

[Fushitsusha]

<div class='quotemain'>
Giteau is much, MUCH better at inside centre than at flyhalf.

I think Barnes is playing well enough to secure the position through to England, and depending on his form he may or may not start against the All Blacks.
[/b]

Well obviously but would you rather Giteau play fly half or have Barnes do a Carlos on us against the All Blacks, he is too young to play a World Cup semi, I very much doubt that Barnes will be able to handle a rampaging All Blacks targeting his position...he will be destroyed...
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I'm not too fond of Giteau as a flyhalf because he doesn't really attack the line, so if Barnes does well against England and Larkham isn't available I'd rather have him at flyhalf with Giteau acting as a second five eighth...

However, if Barnes has a shocker against England I would then back Giteau for flyhalf...

But, I'm confident Barnes would be able to step up against the AB's with guys like Giteau, Mortlock and Latham outside of him...

Personally, I'm more worried about a player like Drew Mitchell or Al Baxter costing us against the All Blacks...

 

[Dddooommm123]

yes i also think we will get past the quaters quiet comfortably with or without larkham, im sure barnes can handle england or tonga but like brodizzle said i dont think he can handle the allblacks in the semi with a jerry collins shoulder comming at him at a 1000 miles per hour because he would get targeted.

but if barnes all of a sudden has an injury or a horrible game and larkham isnt available the sensible option would be giteau at 10 with staniforth or aac at 12, i think them two are kind of similar players both hard runners. staniforth and mortlock combo worked well against scotland last end of year test, thats also because larkham had an awsome game and set up his outside backs so well.

but we all got to hope for the best that he recovers quikly and is fit for QF or semi's at least!!!

 

[boydy]

Personally I think giteau is slightly wasted at fly half (and sh), barnes is good, but I'm not sure he has enough experience yet...let hope larkham is good for the semis.

 

[bwassa]

Barnes is a very suitable replacment for larkham. he is getting a lot of experiance by replacing larkham and he will be a great fly-half in the future for australia