Will Skelton is one of two Australians to be ruled out of the Rugby World Cup due to injury. Photo / Getty
With more big-name injuries announced overnight and today - and the next Rugby World Cup game kicking off in the early hours of tomorrow morning - Scott Yeoman looks at seven things you need to know going into tonight.
The Wallabies have received a devastating double injury blow leading in to their highly-anticipated clash with England on Sunday morning (NZ time). The Australians have lost lock Will Skelton to a shoulder injury and No 8 Wycliff Palu to a hamstring injury. Both players, injured during Australia's 65-3 win over Uruguay, have been ruled out for the rest of the World Cup. See how the Herald's rugby columnist Wynne Gray reacted to the news. Meanwhile, England have their own injury troubles to worry about ahead of the Twickenham fixture - a must-win game for them. See more on that below.
* England have announced their injury list following Saturday's loss to Wales, with No 8 Billy Vunipola out for the rest of the World Cup with a knee injury. There are also still serious concerns over the fitness of lock Courtney Lawes (knee), halfback Ben Youngs (ankle), centre Jonathan Joseph (chest), and No 8 Ben Morgan (knee).
* Meanwhile, the injuries to Welsh winger Hallam Amos (shoulder) and centre Scott Williams (knee) have been confirmed as tournament-ending. Wales' fullback Liam Williams will also miss his side's game against Fiji on Friday morning due to his head knock and concussion on the weekend at Twickenham.
* Scotland's Grant Gilchrist will be going home after suffering a serious groin injury against USA and first five Finn Russell is still a concern after he sustained an ankle injury during the same game.
* Adding to the recent injury concerns for Fiji, star Nemani Nadolo has been banned for one week for a dangerous tackle during his side's 13-28 loss to Australia. This means Nadolo will miss Fiji's clash against Wales on Friday morning. Fijian prop Isei Colati (knee) and winger Waisea Nayacalevu (knee) were recently both ruled out for the rest of the Rugby World Cup.
Read this piece by the Herald on Sunday's rugby writer Gregor Paul about the impact of injuries going forward into the knockout rounds. Which teams will hurt the most?
Tomorrow morning's game at 4.45am (NZ time) should be a lot closer than the bookies are predicting. The TAB now has Tonga paying $1.04 for the win, and Namibia paying $9. But going on the African side's gutsy performance against the All Blacks last Friday, and captain Jacques Burger's pure determination to retire with a Rugby World Cup win under his belt, I'm backing Tonga to win by a much smaller margin than those odds suggest.
Burger has told World Rugby that it remains his team's goal to win against Tonga and that it is not impossible for them to do it. "We know how tough Tonga are as a rugby side. We want to win. Not to compete, but to win. It will be tough but we want to do everything in our power to do that. We want to win a match at the World Cup and that's still our aim."
Tonga will come out firing, however, after having more than a week off since their unexpected loss to Georgia. Both sides have made a lot of changes for the game, and Tonga will be without their captain Nili Latu due to a hamstring strain. Visit nzherald.co.nz tomorrow morning for a match report.
After a day off in Cardiff on Tuesday (UK time), the All Blacks side to play Georgia on the weekend will be named tomorrow night around midnight. There are plenty of All Black-related stories to catch up on in the meantime, however, including this one about the eye-popping fortune Dan Carter is set to make when he joins French club Racing Metro after the World Cup. Of course there's this amazing story about All Black coach Steve Hansen texting his embattled Springbok counterpart Heyneke Meyer to offer support after South Africa's loss to Japan, and this one about the Georgian giant Mamuka Gorgodze and his love of the on-field tussle.
The 31-year-old Georgian captain, who plays for French club side Toulon, could prove a handful on Saturday morning (NZ time) - a 1.96m, 118kg handful to be exact.
Which former coach or player is going to pipe up next about the England v. Wales game on the weekend? Within just a couple of days we've had former All Blacks coach Graham Henry saying England "choked" at Twickenham, former English captain Will Carling accusing coach Stuart Lancaster of treating the England players like "schoolboys", and former England coach Sir Clive Woodward saying they looked like a "team of amateurs" in the last 20 minutes.
Former England player Brian Moore and former Australian winger David Campese also aired their criticisms in columns for the Telegraph.
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