France row rumours denied by Aussie trio

AUSTRALIA trio James O’Connor, Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale have denied rumours they were involved in an altercation while on tour in France last November.

After O’Connor received a one-match ban for missing the official World Cup squad announcement, the Wallabies have been forced to fend off further distraction amid media reports of an alleged incident last year.

“These rumours are dragging out and the reason why we’re here is to squash the rumours. We wouldn’t be sitting here together as best mates or playing together if there was any issues,” said Cooper.

“There are no issues amongst any of us boys. We’re just looking forward to the future of playing in the World Cup and hopefully winning the Tri Nations.

Coach Robbie Deans was inclined to back the players’ version and questioned the motives of those bringing the allegations back into the spotlight in the lead-up to their Saturday night Tri Nations decider with the All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium.

“There’s a lot of suggestion that have been just fallacy ... where they’ve come from, I don’t know. Some of the suggestions are nonsense ... we keep alluding to this incident, but there was no incident as such.

AUSTRALIA (v New Zealand): K Beale; A Ashley-Cooper, A Fainga’a, P McCabe, D Ioane; Q Cooper, W Genia; S Kepu, S Moore, B Alexander, D Vickerman, J Horwill (captain), R Elsom, D Pocock, R Samo.

Replacements: S Faingaa, S Ma’afu, R Simmons, B McCalman, S Higginbotham, L Burgess, AN Other.