The Wallabies’ three most exciting backline stars were engaged in a drunken brawl in Paris last November, it was alleged yesterday, threatening to disrupt Australia’s Rugby World Cup campaign.
Television reports said that James O’Connor and Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper had a late-night scuffle with team-mate Kurtley Beale in the lead-up to the season-ending Test against France.
The reported fight did not appear to affect the Wallabies just days later at the Stade de France when they thrashed the French 59-16 in their biggest win of the year.
The three star backs are normally inseparable in the Wallabies camp but the timing of the allegations could not be worse for Robbie Deans’s highly-rated team, reports said.
Australia have the chance on Saturday to end a 10-year Tri-Nations drought with a series decider against the All Blacks, while the World Cup kicks off in New Zealand early next month.
Meanwhile, O’Connor, 21, was yesterday fined $10,400 and given a one-match ban by the ARU, ruling him out of the Tri-Nations decider, for missing last Thursday’s World Cup squad announcement and team photo following a reported bout of drinking in Sydney.