Double trouble Wallabies front row duo set to miss key England clash

Australia’s hopes of a Twickenham boilover have been dealt a major blow with two key front row weapons all but ruled out of Saturday’s (Sunday AEDT) Test.

Starting tight-head Allan Alaalatoa and bench weapon Taniela Tupou look set to miss the Wallabies’ blockbuster clash with England after suffering head knocks against Scotland.

They are required to observe head injury return to play protocols and will be given every day possible to recover, but the Wallabies have been forced to make contingency plans.

If both are ruled out it leaves Australia without a single specialist tight-head in the squad, a disaster heading into a Test against a formidable English pack.

It has already forced the call up of former Force prop Ollie Hoskins, who plays with London Irish in the English Premiership and has not been sighted in the Australian system since 2016.

Hoskins went into camp on Monday, but the Wallabies are more likely to look to veteran prop James Slipper to move to the tight-head side of the scrum. Angus Bell could start at loose-head, with Tom Robertson joining Hoskins on the bench.

James Slipper (centre) could be forced to start out of position at tight-head prop if the worst comes to pass in Wallabies camp this week.Credit:Getty

Slipper, a 112-Test veteran, considers himself a loose-head, but has filled in where necessary at Test and club level. He played at tight-head for the Brumbies this year and was used as front row cover under former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans eight years ago.

Tupou was concussed in Australia’s 15-13 loss to Scotland on Sunday and did not return to the field after a head injury assessment. Alaalatoa was also concussed but played out the match after passing his tests.

Hoskins, 28, could be in line for a fairytale Test debut off the bench five years after leaving Australia to forge a career in Europe. He is London Irish’s most capped current player with 123 appearances in the Premiership.

Taniela Tupou is expected to be ruled out of the game against England.Credit:AP

“It’s pretty wild â€" it’s hard to put into words how I feel,” he told his club. “It’s surreal. It’s something that I thought was off the table for me when I moved over here and set up my life here. They’ve obviously recently changed the [eligibility] laws, so when I got that phone call last night, it was an incredible moment.

“Obviously nothing is guaranteed in terms of playing time, but just to receive the call-up and be considered is a huge privilege, and confirmation that I’m on the right path and doing the right things.

“I’m just going to lap up the experience and hopefully come back a better man and a better player.”

The Wallabies were also likely to lose starting winger Jordan Petaia after the Queenslander left Murrayfield with a hamstring injury, leaving Rennie down eight players from the match-day line-up responsible for the Wallabies’ five-Test winning streak last month.

Nic White believes the Wallabies can bounce back from the Scotland loss.Credit:AP

Despite the drama, halfback Nic White was buoyant in camp, maintaining the Wallabies were not far off against Scotland and could turn things around at Twickenham.

“Everyone’s replaying a few moments in their head and what they’d do differently, but if you flip that, the positive is that for everything that went wrong and everything that went against us, we were still two points away from getting a result there in Edinburgh, in front of a packed stadium and away from home,” he said. “It’s not all doom and gloom, but there are areas we need to tidy up.”

The Wallabies attack struggled to gel with new players at five-eighth, inside centre and off the bench, but White said training and time would help this week.

“It was a little bit clunky at times and took us a little while to get into it,” he said. “There’s certainly an element of new guys coming in and we’ve got to be able to adapt to the way they play. They bring different strengths ... but there’s also an element of the guys need to fit into the way we want to play.

“It is a bit of a juggling act [at halfback] when you get a few new guys coming in but, on the whole ... it’s something we feel we can fix pretty quickly.”

Australia have a poor recent record against England, with the losses piling one on top of the other since Eddie Jones and Michael Cheika took the reins of their respective sides. The Wallabies have not beaten England in seven outings since the 2015 World Cup. The most recent clash ended Australia’s World Cup dream with an emphatic 40-16 scoreline.

White said Rennie’s first Test against England could be a reset for the Wallabies after Jones and Cheika’s shared Randwick history put an intimate spin on a storied rivalry between the nations.

“It will be less personal for sure,” he said. “As a playing group, I certainly didn’t feel it, but there was a lot in the media between Eddie and Cheik. I think it will be a little different this week and a good chance for us to focus on what we want to do and the way we want to play.”

The experienced halfback, who played in England before Cheika jump-started a stalled Test career in 2016, swatted away praise from Jones this week, cheekily labelling the Australian the “king of England”.

“It’s nice for him to give us some praise,” White said. “Eddie’s the king of mind games, so I’m certainly not reading too much into what he says.

“He’s the type of guy you’d love to sit down, have a beer and talk rugby with. Hopefully one day I get that chance.

“Our job this week will be a little different to previous games with England. We’ll focus on the things we could have controlled on the weekend just gone, fix those and concentrate on us rather than, in previous times, concentrate on so much of what England are doing.”

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