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Wallaby Hunter Paisami set to miss rest of Rugby Championship – report
The Wallabies have been left battered and bruised after two highly physical Test match defeats to the world champion Springboks. Three players picked up either a head knock or injury in the first match, and there’s more bad news for the Aussies moving forward.
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While Nick Forst and Jeremy Williams are expected to be available for Australia’s upcoming clash with Argentina, the men in gold are set to be without one of their regular starters for a while.
Powerful inside centre Hunter Paisami is reportedly set to miss the rest of The Rugby Championship after suffering a MCL knee injury during the 18-point defeat at Perth’s Optus Stadium. The Roar understands the 26-year-old may be on the sidelines for up to six weeks.
Paisami limped off the field eight minutes into the second half on Saturday. That prompted a chaotic backline reshuffle with Len Ikitau shifting to inside centre for the first time under Joe Schmidt, and Andrew Kellaway moving into the midfield from the wing.
While Paisami’s performance had been a bit underwhelming up until that point, with the midfielder nearly gifting the Springboks a try with a misfired cross-field kick during the opening 40 minutes, there’s no doubt this is a big loss for Joe Schmidt’s team.
“He’s grown in confidence,” Joe Schmidt told reporters when asked about flyhalf Noah Lolesio. “I was delighted with the way he coped… losing Hunter, he stayed really composed, I thought, and ran the game as best he could.
“As much as we became a little bit probably out of kilter in the pack and just probably upset our backline balance as well. Hunter’s been super for us and that was a bit of a loss.
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“Despite all that, I thought Noah did look really composed and stayed in the game really well and I thought his kicking was improved on top of that.”
Following the Wallabies’ two tough defeats to the Springboks, they’ll turn their attention towards another mini-series against Los Pumas in Argentina. Argentina will be full of confidence after shocking New Zealand in Wellington before losing at Eden Park last time out.
The first Test is just under two weeks away, so Schmidt and the other coaches will by weighing up their options to replace Paisami in the starting side. Western Force playmaker Hamish Stewart seems to be a strong candidate to debut in Wallaby gold.
Stewart, who used to play for the Queensland Reds before making the move out west, was the first Wallaby onto the field at Suncorp Stadium earlier this month for warm-up. The utility plays a different game to Paisami but there’s no doubt he could do a job if called upon.
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“I think he had one of the best seasons I’ve seen of Super Rugby this year. He’s tough, he’s strong, works really hard,” Force coach Simon Cron said in a statement after Stewart re-signed with the club.
“The boys love him. He’s the kind of guy that leads by doing. He does a lot for us as a team.
“Personally and for us, as a franchise, we were really happy to have him coming back.”
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