Sam Carter makes fine start to Test career but hits small setback with ankle injury
SAM Carter ensured his name will be on Wallabies team sheets for years to come after ignoring a badly injured ankle for 73 minutes in his Test debut.
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SAM Carter ensured his name will be on Wallabies team sheets for years to come after ignoring the pain of a badly injured ankle for 73 minutes in his Test debut.
Unfortunately the next time will be in the Rugby Championship after Carter was yesterday ruled out of the rest of the French Test series due a syndesmosis (high ankle sprain) injury in Brisbane.
His absence will likely see James Horwill return to the Wallabies XV for his 50th Test, with muscle set to be required in Mebourne against a France team bolstered by heavyweight cavalry.
The assured, 80-minute performance of Carter seemed more like a 20th Test than a first, but it was all the more impressive when it was revealed yesterday the Brumbies lock damaged his ankle in the opening minutes.
“He injured it in the seventh minute of the game, so that’ll give you an idea of how tough the bloke is,” Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie.
“I was surprised but I wasn’t surprised. I picked him for certain reasons and all that showed up out on the field.
“He showed great resilience and it didn’t show up in his performance at all. Terrific courage.”
Though syndesmosis can be lead to long-term problems, and even surgery, McKenzie said medical staff believed Carter’s would see him back for the ACT in 3-4 weeks.
The French response at Etihad is odds-on to be highly physical, after they were torn apart by the pace of the Wallabies game.
MOORE PAIN, SKIPPER GONE FOR SEASON
With the likes of Louis Picamoles, Mathieu Bastareaud and Thierry Dusautoir expected to be back in the team, Les Bleus will go hard at the breakdown and try to stifle Australia.
With the potential to win the series, McKenzie is expected to turn to the experience of Horwill to fill Carter’s vacancy over uncapped options Luke Jones or Will Skelton.
“(Phillipe) Sant-Andre probably pointed to it in his press conference - they will make a bunch of changes, and they can change half their team and get a result the following week. We have seen it so many times its not funny,” McKenzie said.
“You have some heavyweights sitting there on the sidelines so no doubt they’ll bring them into the fray.
“We will have a look and think about what the French might do, in terms of their response next week.
“We played a working pack and that paid off for us. We will have a look and see if we have a different scenario.”
Skelton may have the edge over Jones for the bench gig due to his physicality.
McKenzie said he could also “tinker” with his bench, after being unhappy with the French scoring twice in the final 10 minutes.
“I have high expectations of the bench to finish the game ... we wanted to finish strongly and we weren’t able to do that,” he said.
“We will have a look. There are obviously going to be a few changes due to injury anyway. We have more players in form than you can pick, so that’s something to ponder as well.
“There’s plenty of fine-tuning to be done. They are good problems to have, some of those things. Having some depth to tinker is a good option to have, but that’s not saying we’ll do it.”
Originally published as Sam Carter makes fine start to Test career but hits small setback with ankle injury