Gregan should be ready for Ireland

AUSTRALIAN captain George Gregan will almost certainly miss his team’s next World Cup match but should be fit to face Ireland in the crucial Pool A clash in Sydney on November 1.

The scrum-half injured his thigh in the first half of yesterday’s 90-8 romp over Romania and did not return to the field after the break.

Initial fears that it was a serious problem were allayed by effective treatment overnight, and the 30-year-old was walking comfortably at the team hotel yesterday.

“This isn’t as bad as first thought,” Gregan said before the team flew back to Sydney. “The way it has responded overnight I think it will recover 100%. It was a big night on the compression machine and icing so I’m pretty happy with where I’m at at the moment in terms of progress.

"I’ve had worse corks than this, in terms of how it’s pulled up the next day, and played within a week going on Super 12 history. If I was going to have a cork, now is the time to have it.”

He confirmed the injury will almost certainly mean he will be rested against Namibia in favour of New South Wales’ Chris Whittaker. “I think that’s going to be the realistic choice and Whittsy will be jumping out of his skin to play in Adelaide.” added Gregan.

Whittaker, the only other specialist scrum-half in the Wallabies’ World Cup squad, was left out of the match-day squad against Romania and had to watch as utility Matt Giteau took over at the base of the scrum.

“It was a bit disappointing in the sense that the one time the reserve guy had a really good chance to play, Whittsy wasn’t in the 22, but he’ll get his chance next week,” said Gregan.

Gregan watched his teammates run in eight tries after the break, an effort which pleased him despite continued problems with handling in the backs and forward accuracy at breakdowns.

“It was an improvement but there were still some errors and we’re pretty hard on ourselves,” he declared.

“There were times when execution, poor passes and things like alignment, all those sorts of things, let us down.

“But in saying that we did some good things, we scored 13 tries and it doesn’t matter the quality of the opposition: We still did some really good things out there.

“You’re never going to play a perfect game of football. You aspire to do that, you strive for that but there were definitely some things which we were disappointed in, especially in the first half and especially at the breakdowns.”

He was particularly pleased with the increased backline fluency in the second half, even against a Romanian side who fell to pieces as the game wore on.

“You can’t play at the width we played at at times without depth, so that was good,” he said.“As you get tired you sometimes forget about doing that and you get a bit sloppy, which we sometimes did, but we’re getting better at that and that’s allowing us to play with a bit more width.

“It was set up for a good game of rugby and it was nice to cash in.”

Lock David Giffin is in contention for a place against Namibia after recovering well from the head and neck injuries he suffered being lifted for a kick-off return against Argentina.

A neurological specialist has cleared the 29-year-old of any lingering effects in terms of concussion and the remaining concern is his shoulder, which bore the brunt of the tumble.