Ewen McKenzie unhappy at Stephen Moore’s knee injury


Moore injured his knee in the early stages of Australia’s win in Brisbane, forcing him from the field in the same week he was appointed skipper.

But while Moore’s debut as captain did not go to plan, the Wallabies put in an excellent performance, with seven different players scoring tries.

“When you lie in bed at night and think about all the scenarios and you plan for this and that, try and be devil’s advocate on everything, but that wasn’t one that I anticipated would happen a couple of minutes into the game,” McKenzie said.

“It’s definitely a medial injury, what level I don’t know, and the scans will tell us that, hopefully it’s not more than that. With a slightly older guy everything’s a bit more loose, but the scans will tell us more.”

Moore added: “It’s a great start for us, the boys scored some great tries. Unfortunately I wasn’t out there for much of it.”

McKenzie felt his side made a statement with their performance, which opened their international season that will include the Rugby Championship.

“We wanted to win the first Test, it was something we hadn’t done for a few years,” he added.

“Seven tries is a good indication of the intention.

“You can trawl through the game and find moments where we could have done better but I think, with the preparation we had, I was keen to get a statement.”

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre said his side panicked under Australia’s pressure and that they were thoroughly outplayed.

“Australia were physical, but with a fair bit of urgency,” Saint-Andre said.

“I think we panicked too much.
“Sometimes we needed to play to the space in our game, and not try to do too much against the speed of Australia.

“We took a lesson in rugby … we did poorly at the advantage line, in attack and defence, we missed too many tackles and we lost too many one-on-ones.

“Our first 20 minutes were quite good, our last 10 minutes too, but we have a week of huge work (ahead).”

Australia will play two more Tests against France, in Melbourne and Sydney.

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