Australia coach Michael Cheika has recalled a quartet of experienced overseas-based players led by Matt Giteau and included four uncapped players in a 36-man training squad for the Rugby Championship.
Center Giteau, who qualifies to represent his country in spite of playing for a French club because he has won more than 60 caps, was called up despite Australian media reports that Toulon were trying to block the move.
The other overseas-based players included were outside back Adam Ashley-Cooper, scrumhalf Will Genia and winger Drew Mitchell. All four were key members of the Wallabies team who reached the World Cup final against winners New Zealand last year.
Photo: Reuters
Cheika did not bring the quartet back to Australia for the series against England last month, which the Wallabies lost 3-0, but they will now be in contention to face world champions New Zealand in back-to-back Tests next month.
“All of our eligible European-based players expressed a desire to play for the Wallabies during the Rugby Championship and that experience is invaluable,” Cheika said. “We have a very clear purpose in this team and we are prepared to work very hard to respect that purpose.”
Flyhalf Quade Cooper, who has signed a three-year deal with the Australian Rugby Union after cutting short his spell in France, was also included.
Uncapped prop Allan Alaalatoa and center Reece Hodge have been in previous squads, but prop Tom Robertson and loose forward Lopeti Timani, the brother of former Wallabies lock Sitaleki, received their first call-ups.
Outside back Dane Haylett-Petty, center Samu Kerevi, scrumhalf Nick Frisby and lock Adam Coleman have all been retained after making their Test debuts against England last month.
The Wallabies begin their campaign against New Zealand at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney on Aug. 20.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier