Connolly stands by players' dismissals

Australia coach John Connolly has defended his decision to send home four players from a Wallabies training camp earlier this week for failing fitness tests.

Waratahs trio Lote Tuqiri, Morgan Turinui and Tatafu Polota-Nau, and Brumbies winger Mark Gerarrd, were sent home on the first morning of the camp after failing to pass a running endurance exercise.

The stumbling block for the four players was an endurance sprint session involving 20 repetitions over 50m and another 20 over 100m. Turinui managed the distance but outside the allotted time, while the others failed to complete the task.

“As for sending these four home, there’s no point in setting standards unless you’re going to do something about it when people do not reach the mark,” Connolly told the Daily Telegraph.

“We told them what would happen at the start of the camp if they didn’t reach their targets in testing. They would be sent home straight away, and that’s what happened.”

Connolly re-iterated that the World Cup was only 10 months away and the team needed to be focused as a unit if Australia are to be competitive at the tournament.

“I’ve said it before, we need to tighten up as a team and this is all part of that. I know it’s a long time until the tournament (in September-October) and these guys have a lot of football to play between now and then,” he added.

“But we don’t want to be starting a World Cup year behind the eight-ball.”

Gerrard, meanwhile, admitted the sending home was justified, but also explained the reason he could not complete the running task was not due to a sore back.

“This is a kick in the pants and I’ve got to get cracking over the next couple of weeks to prepare for Super 14,” Gerrard said.

“But at 16 or 17 hundreds I started to fall apart. My back seized up and I just couldn’t keep going.”

Turinui admitted to having an extended holiday after the Wallabies’ European tour but said he was confident of getting back into Connolly’s good books during the Super 14 season.

“It’s not the best start to the year but it’s the first day back from holidays for me and I have got a month of pre-season to get myself right for Super 14,” he said.

“That’s what the Test side is going to be judged on, form in the Super 14. I will be ready to go by then.”