Walker and Larkham out of Cats' match
March 5, 2001

The Brumbies have been forced to make several alterations to their squad ahead of next Saturday's clash with the Cats at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

Andrew Walker's mother is critically ill and he will return home on Monday along with centre James Holbeck, who was injured in the first half of the Brumbies 17-16 loss to the Sharks in Durban. Holbeck has re-strained a hamstring. Damien McInally will leave Australia on Monday to link up with the team who are currently in Durban.

Brumbies and Wallaby fly half Stephen Larkham is also out of the Cats match. He has failed to recover from a hamstring injury and will spend the remaining days of the Brumbies' tour of South Africa completing his rehabilitation program.

Brumbies coach Eddie Jones says that he's looking forward to the week ahead.
"You just can't control injuries and illness so you can't really afford to have those things affect you. With Jimmy (James Holbeck) it's again one of those things. He's a very valuable player for the Brumbies and we need him to be fit to play. I've got a lot of confidence in our depth and I'm confident that we won't be too disrupted," said Jones.

Jones said the team were disappointed with their performance against the Sharks. "No excuses. It was humid and we struggled. The Sharks tackled well and restricted our game."

Looking ahead to the match with the Cats , Jones said it represents a big challenge to his side. "The Cats are travelling well. Laurie Mains has them playing a physical and skilful sort of game. They put a lot of pressure on the Highlanders last weekend and won convincingly. On top of that there's the added challenge of playing in front of a big parochial crowd at Ellis Park. "

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