Roff expected to play
August 16, 2001

Joe Roff is expected to take his place in the Wallaby line-up for Saturday's Tri-Nations Test against the Springboks in Perth.

He limped off the training paddock on Wednesday after spraining his ankle during a training drill, but has shown a rapid improvement.

Roff, who already holds the Australian record of 57 consecutive games, needs just six more Tests to overtake former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick's world record.

The news is a boost for Wallaby coach Eddie Jones who was facing the prospect of losing his two frontline wingers after Andrew Walker was dropped for disciplinary reasons earlier this week.

Queensland fullback Chris Latham replaces Walker on the wing giving Jones the options of rotating three noted fullbacks in Latham, Roff and Matt Burke.

"It's pulled up pretty well, it was a bit of a scare at the time but I'm pretty confident now that it will be right come Saturday," Roff said.

"It's a pretty important game for us and I was keen to play well after the way we played against South Africa."

Roff gave much of the credit of his rapid recovery to Wallaby physiotherapist Greg Craig who has announced his retirement from the position after having his first involvement with the side in 1985.

"He's probably considered the best post-war physio, in fact he's the only post-war physio we've had and he's been great," Roff joked. "It's come as bit of a shock to some of us that he's moving on.

"You know you're going to get the best possible treatment to give yourself every possible chance of taking the field."

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices