{"id":901101,"date":"2026-09-22T08:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901101\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T08:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:56:15","slug":"wallabies-vs-springboks-team-news-2026-charlie-cale-injury-nick-champion-de-crespigny-named-as-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901101\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies vs Springboks team news 2026: Charlie Cale injury; Nick Champion de Crespigny named as replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Cale\u2019s season is over after the Wallabies<\/a> confirmed his rotten luck had continued with a training injury that requires surgery.<\/p>\n

The athletic loose forward suffered a shoulder subluxation at training in Perth on Saturday and after scans and consultation with specialists it was decided he would go under the knife.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Charlie Cale warms up during a Wallabies training session.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cale, 25, is one of the most gifted players in Australia, but a string of injuries has restricted him to just six Tests since making his debut in 2024.<\/p>\n

The ACT Brumbies<\/a> star battled shoulder issues in 2024 and 2026 while a back injury cruelled his 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something at a breakdown there, just a recurrence from I think one of the injuries that he had during Super Rugby,\u201d Wallabies assistant coach Tom Donnelly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty disappointed for Charlie. He\u2019s still a young man, he\u2019s still got a massive future ahead of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit of silver lining is that if it needs to be repaired, he can get it fixed, and he can hit the ground running for Super Rugby next year, and give himself a great run into being available for the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallabies coach Les Kiss<\/a> has called in Western Force<\/a> bruiser Nick Champion de Crespigny as a replacement ahead of Sunday\u2019s clash with the world champion Springboks<\/a> at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s (Cale) had a really good Super Rugby season and then came in and has been really good in our environment,\u201d Donnelly said.<\/p>\n

“His aerial skills are a real strength of his so we’ll lose a little bit of that. But at the same time, Nick is a pretty similar player, has very good aerial skills as well, and is pretty physical.”<\/p>\n

Kiss is yet to taste defeat as Wallabies coach while the Springboks beat Australia 30-12 in their last visit to Perth in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa are the best team in the world, so what better way to test what we\u2019ve been doing and everything we\u2019ve been working on than doing it against the best?\u201d Wallabies flanker Carlo Tizzano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get the win will be unreal. I think we\u2019ve grown a lot since we last played them in Perth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carlo Tizzano was superb in Townsville.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

“But it’s all about making sure we do all the things we’ve been talking about during the week. And if we do that, then we should get a good result.”<\/p>\n

Wallabies coach Rassie Erasmus said he has huge respect for Australia, despite their struggles against many other nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find them tremendously difficult to play against, I don\u2019t know why,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say they\u2019re more physical than other teams. Like, they\u2019re definitely up there for physicality. But ever since I was a player, they\u2019ve got big guys like (Owen) Finegan, now, is it (Tom) Hooper, they\u2019re massive, but they\u2019ve got these weird-built guys, with massive size.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re tough, strong guys. I remember with Finegan, I never could work out, how do you tackle the guy?<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since those days, I just find them intriguing, the Australians. You get a guy like (Joseph-Aukuso) Suaalii, who\u2019s 22, and he just comes in, and he\u2019s a full-on player. You just find these players.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa arrive fresh from beating New Zealand 3-1 in an epic series that finished in the United States.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks have been staying on the Central Coast this week.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who plays four games against New Zealand will be a little bit punch-drunk at the end,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why prior to the New Zealand series we had the Nations Championship games, we really rotated a lot. And in the Argentinian game we had to gamble a little bit, keeping players behind, and we almost lost that match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Wallabies vs Springboks and the Bledisloe Cup.\u00a0Add the Stan Sport package<\/a>\u00a0to watch rugby live and on demand with no ad-breaks in play<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Cale\u2019s season is over after the Wallabies confirmed his rotten luck had continued with a training injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-901101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901101","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=901101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}