Pat O'Connor Suffers Setback on Eve of Tour Clash

[RugbyWA]

Emirates Western Force lock Pat O’Connor has suffered a minor setback in his bid for a return to action for the Emirates Western Force after being ruled out of tomorrow morning’s (WST) tour-opening clash with Newcastle Falcons.

O’Connor was ruled out of the team’s first up fixture last night after suffering a groin strain at training yesterday.

The 116kg lock is expected to make a full recovery before the team’s second tour outing against Saracens in Watford next Saturday.

O’Connor was due to make his first appearance in the ocean blue jersey since undergoing successive knee reconstructions over the past two seasons.

RugbyWA Academy lock Valeni Tia Tia has been elevated to the starting side to wear the number 5 jersey, while his place on the reserves bench has been filled by Australian Under 20’s utility Tom Murday.

The revised Emirates Western Force team sheet for the clash is as follows:

Emirates Western Force v Newcastle Falcons

Friday 8 August, 2008

Kingston Park, Newcastle, England

Kick off: 8pm (3am Saturday 9 August WST)

Emirates Western Force

1. Pek Cowan
2. Luke Holmes
3. AJ Whalley
4. Sam Wykes
5. Valeni Tia Tia
6. Matt Hodgson
7. David Pocock (c)
8. Tamaiti Horua

9. Chris O’Young
10. James O’Connor
11. Haig Sare
12. Junior Pelesasa
13. Josh Tatupu
14. Scott Staniforth
15. Dane Haylett-Petty

Reserves

16. Tai McIsaac
17. Kieran Longbottom
18. Tom Murday
19. Filipe Manu
20. Justin Turner
21. Scott Daruda
22. Caleb Brown
More...

[Thequeerone]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo

[joblot]

Emirates Western Force lock Pat O’Connor has suffered a minor setback in his bid for a return to action for the Emirates Western Force after being ruled out of tomorrow morning’s (WST) tour-opening clash with Newcastle Falcons.

Pity, I was looking forward to getting a report on his performance.

[lara93]

aww poor thing
hope he dont gets more injuries..touch wood

[GIGS20]

Are you with HBF Patty!



I'd like to thank TIF for the content of this joke!

[robyn <3]

the poor guy hasnt had a game in so long, thats really sad

get better soon pat! hope to see (well, hear about) you out there next game

[force addict]

oh no. not beef. The poor bloke does NOT need this. !!!

[goony]

breaking news!! tamati horua has pulled out and brent murphy has been elevated to the bench... not sure who is going to run on now but i imagine it would be filipe manu

[lara93]

whys horua out????
thats bad!!

[bort]

thats bad luck for o'connor
at force training a couple weeks ago him and wykes(i think) collided and everyone went
'you ok o'connor!?' coz he went down over his legs
and hes like 'yer im sweet' and wykes (i think, cant really remember) goes
'im fine too guys, thanks'
shame about horua too, hes pretty good leader on the park (at training at least) i havent actually seen him play a game

[laura]

All that sheep and goat herding has ruled Horua out ey?

[lara93]

ahahah