Australia’s hopes of bringing in Will Skelton for the remaining two tests in their end-of-season tour have been dashed after the totemic lock suffered an ankle injury playing club rugby in France.
Skelton’s heft and physicality have added greatly to Australia’s forward power when he has been available this season, but the team said he had been ruled out of the matches against Ireland and France over the next two weekends.
Flyhalf James O’Connor has travelled to Ireland after being released by English club Leicester but the team said he would be helping the squad prepare for the match, suggesting he would not be playing.
Many of Australia’s best backline moves this year have come with the 35-year-old on the pitch and there have been loud calls for him to play against Ireland after disappointing attacking displays in losses to England and Italy.
Carter Gordon started in the number 10 shirt in Udine but was withdrawn after 54 minutes as a precaution because of a quadricep niggle.
His contribution was impressive for a player who had not played a test since the 2023 World Cup with an opportunist try, a break up the middle early in the game, and one stunning long pass.
Gordon was relieved of kicking duties against Italy because of concerns about his injury but said he was feeling better each day and hoped to have the tee in hand sooner rather than later.
“Early in the week, we just made a decision that we were going to offload some of that kicking,” he told reporters in Dublin on Monday.
“Obviously we’ve got to keep tabs on it, making sure I’m not doing too much, but ideally I’ll get back to doing all the kicking.”
Australia face the prospect of going winless in Europe on their end-of-season tour if they fail to get a win in Dublin or Paris.
