Western Force fullback Cameron Shepherd has been ruled out of his team’s Super 14 Round Two encounter with the Cheetahs at the Subiaco Oval on Friday.
Rugby 365 reports that the 24-year-old has had soreness in his lower leg since last weekend’s loss to the Blues and was withdrawn from the second round fixture.
“Cameron has had some soreness in his leg and wasn’t able to take part in most of yesterday’s training session, so we’ve decided to pull him out of the game as a precaution,” team doctor Mark de Cruz said.
Shepherd’s omission paves the way for Drew Mitchell to return to fullback, where has played 14 matches for the West Australian side since coming to Perth in 2007.
The 21-year-old back Nick Cummins, originally named on the right wing for the Cheetahs clash, will switch to the left wing, while Haig Sare has won a recall on the right wing, where he started last weekend’s loss to the Blues.
Western Force – revised: 15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Haig Sare, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 James O’Connor, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Josh Valentine, 8 Richard Brown, 7 David Pocock, 6 Tamaiti Horua, 5 Nathan Sharpe (captain), 4 Pat O’Connor, 3 Ben Castle, 2 Tai McIsaac, 1 Gareth Hardy.
Replacements: 16 Luke Holmes, 17 Kieran Longbottom, 18 Tom Hockings, 19 Matt Hodgson, 20 Chris O’Young, 21 Josh Tatupu, 22 Scott Staniforth.
May the Force be with the blikore.
This screws with my FL team’s chances of getting 20 Points for having my WHOLE starting XV play in winning sides.
Needs to reshuffle now.