Beale in Wallabies sights as star trio all but scratched
Kurtley Beale is in talks to link up with the Wallabies after Quade Cooper looked set to become the third big name to withdraw from the spring tour.
Team management was negotiating with Beale’s French club Racing 92 about the 92-Test back answering an SOS call from Dave Rennie after talks stalled with Cooper’s Japanese club Kintetsu.
Quade Cooper is out of the Wallabies’ European tour.Credit:Getty
On Wednesday it appeared the resurgent playmaker’s Wallabies season was over, following centre Samu Kerevi and back rower Sean McMahon on the spring tour cancellation list.
The 33-year-old was set to rest his body before the start of pre-season with Kintetsu, the team with which he plays in Japan’s renamed Top League, Rugby League One.
The Wallabies spent Tuesday talking with Beale and Top 14 club Racing 92 about him linking up with the squad.
It capped a shambolic three days for the Wallabies, with relations in disarray between the withdrawn players and coaches, as well as senior RA executives, after chief executive Andy Marinos called into question their conduct in an interview with the Herald on Tuesday.
It will also heap pressure on the RA board’s rugby committee, comprised of former Wallabies Phil Waugh and Daniel Herbert, which is working through whether to change the so-called Giteau Law governing offshore Test eligibility.
The committee, rounded out by Marinos, was due to meet on Wednesday to approve which players can be drafted into the Wallabies squad to replace the absent trio. Rennie was already “thinâ€, as he put it on Tuesday, with incumbent fullback Reece Hodge out injured and winger Marika Koroibete the first late withdrawal, citing family reasons.
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