by: Wayne Smith From: The Australian September 26, 2011 12:00AM

THE one player seemingly indispensable to Australia's World Cup campaign, openside flanker David Pocock, is fit again and ready to return to the fray against Russia in Nelson on Saturday.

The late withdrawal of Pocock from the Ireland match with a lower back problem ceded control of the breakdown to the men in green and afterwards was identified by both teams as one of the main contributing factors in Ireland's stunning 15-6 victory.

He is, after all, the only specialist seven in the 30-man Australian squad.

But even when the Wallabies defeated the US by a record margin in Wellington on Friday night, his continued injury-enforced absence disrupted their fluency and robbed them of go-forward around the fringes, prompting former British and Irish Lions five-eighth Stuart Barnes to suggest that "Australia without Pocock is like Hamlet without the prince".



Happily for the Wallabies, the central character has returned before they have lost the plot, accompanied by another key actor in Australia's play, goalkicking winger James O'Connor who missed the US match because of a hamstring problem.

Both players were able to run well yesterday and came through a contact session so, one by one, the Wallabies are reassembling their cast.

There are still some important stars missing, however, with centre Rob Horne (fractured cheekbone) and number eight Wycliff Palu (strained hamstring) heading to Christchurch today for MRIs that could well determine whether they remain at the World Cup, while lock Dan Vickerman also will have a precautionary scan to determine if all is well with the stress fracture in his leg.

Inside centre Pat McCabe will remain at the World Cup, although much will depend on whether the shoulder he subluxed against the US continues to improve at the rate it has over the first 48 hours.

And while Quade Cooper, Kurtley Beale, Drew Mitchell and Adam Ashley-Cooper all finished the US match hobbling to some degree, all are expected to be available for selection for the historic first meeting with Russia. Still, small wonder coach Robbie Deans described the injury toll from the American game as carnage.

Deans admitted that if the Wallabies had to have an injury crisis at this tournament, at least they had timed it well, with players having time to recover before Australia enters the sudden-death stage with a likely quarter-final against South Africa.

They could pick no better place to recover than Hanmer Springs, a tranquil Swiss-like village nestling at the foot of snow-capped mountains yet boasting some of New Zealand's best therapeutic hot springs.

"It's about the fit blokes," Deans said. "History doesn't record who played, just the outcome. We could have 30 fit blokes but only 22 who get the opportunity to play. And we will have 22 fit blokes (against Russia)."

Still, as well-timed as these injuries might be in terms of Australia's capacity to weather the crisis, that's not to say its World Cup campaign has been unaffected.

As Deans observed after watching the All Blacks impressively dispose of France on Saturday night, it is clear NZ is honing its game ahead of the more desperate matches to come.

"They're obviously mapping out how they want to go about their game and who they want to involve," he said. "And to date they haven't had too many injury issues so they've been able to make those decisions."

Not so the Wallabies, however, who basically had to get through the US and now Russia any way they could, all hands to the pumps.

As battered as the Wallabies are, they will take time on Wednesday to visit Christchurch, devastated by the February 22 earthquake.

"We're not coming as tourists, we're not coming to gawk," said Deans, who has spent most of his life in the Canterbury region. "We're coming here to actually get out and do something for the community."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226146255345