:Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has been forced to replace injured Marika Koroibete in his side for Australia's final Rugby Championship test against the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday.
The Fiji-born winger suffered a wrist injury in the 31-28 loss to the All Blacks in Sydney last week that had swollen up on the flight over to New Zealand, Schmidt told a news conference on Thursday.
Koroibete was named Australia's best test player in 2019 and 2022 but has looked out of sorts in the Rugby Championship and dropped a couple of simple passes in Sydney last Saturday.Schmidt said Japan-based Koroibete's performance had perhaps been impacted by the injury and questions over whether he would have been dropped in any case were "moot". "He's still pretty quick.
He still managed to open up the defences a couple of times," he told reporters in Wellington. "His ability to change angle, some of his handling, I think, was compromised a little bit with that wrist during the last game.