Sydney: Fiji-born flyer Henry Speight has been sidelined with a hamstring injury for a month and will be replaced by winger Peter Betham in the Wallabies squad, the team said on Wednesday.
Speight, selected in the 32-man Australian squad for the upcoming Rugby Championship, is expected to recover from the injury before he becomes eligible to represent Australia on September 11.
He was injured in the second-half of his ACT Brumbies’ loss to the New South Wales Waratahs in the Super Rugby semi-final on Saturday.
“It’s disappointing for Henry but I’ve got no doubt that he’ll go back and work hard during the rehab process to get his injury healed before he becomes eligible to play for Australia in mid-September,” Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie said.
“On the flip side, we bring in a guy in Peter Betham who has had significant exposure to our programme over the past year and who made his Test debut against New Zealand in 2013.”
Australia face New Zealand in their opening Bledisloe Cup Test match on August 16 in Sydney. They play the All Blacks again on August 23, before South Africa on September 6 and 27 and Argentina on September 13 and October 4.
