{"id":251998,"date":"2025-10-31T00:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251998\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T00:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:06:12","slug":"australias-jillaroos-lose-tamika-upton-for-pacific-championships-test-against-new-zealands-kiwi-ferns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251998\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s Jillaroos lose Tamika Upton for Pacific Championships Test against New Zealand’s Kiwi Ferns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia is hopeful Tamika Upton will return from injury for the Pacific Championships final, after the Jillaroos fullback was ruled out of Sunday’s group match against New Zealand in Auckland.<\/p>\n

Two-time Dally M medallist Upton succumbed to a calf strain on Friday, opening the door for Abbi Church to make her Test debut at fullback at Auckland’s Eden Park.<\/p>\n

The Jillaroos and Kiwi Ferns have already qualified for the Pacific Championships final, which will be played in Parramatta on November 9.<\/p>\n

Jillaroos thump Fet\u016b S\u0101moa <\/a><\/p>\n

The Jillaroos show why they are world champions, recording a dominant 60-0 victory over Fet\u016b S\u0101moa in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

“Tamika pulled up on Tuesday’s training with calf soreness, so our performance staff just took some precautionary actions and wanted to get that checked out,” Jillaroos coach Jess Skinner said.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a really long season for Tamika and she has had issues with the calf previously.<\/p>\n

“She’s got a minor strain, so it’s best that we look after her and work towards getting her back for next week.”<\/p>\n

Upton scored two tries for the Jillaroos in their 60-0 thrashing of Fet\u016b S\u0101moa in last Sunday’s Test in Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Jillaroos have also lost reserve forward Mackenzie Weale for the rest of the tournament with a pelvis injury.<\/p>\n

Weale had been named on an extended bench to face the Kiwi Ferns.<\/p>\n

\"Front<\/p>\n

Abbi Church will make her Test debut for the Jillaroos on Sunday. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)<\/p>\n

Upton’s injury hands Church a fitting opportunity to debut.<\/p>\n

The Parramatta star impressed for NSW in State of Origin this year and was part of Australia’s extended squad for last year’s Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great opportunity for Abbi to make a debut, someone who’s been part of the campaign over the last two years,” Skinner said.<\/p>\n

“She’s been working really hard, has had a great season as well, so it’s another opportunity for a debutant.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia is hopeful Tamika Upton will return from injury for the Pacific Championships final, after the Jillaroos fullback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,16043,149368,1736,44,25993,130405,159,54355],"class_list":["post-251998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jillaroos","tag-kikwi-ferns","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-nrlw","tag-pacific-championships","tag-rugby-league","tag-tamika-upton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}