Wallabies work up a sweat with Aston Villa in Gold Coast training session as the Australian rugby side prepares for a crucial three Test series decider against England on Saturday
- Australia’s rugby team were joined in training by Premier League side Aston Villa
- The Wallabies face England in a crucial series decider on Saturday in Sydney
- Tyrone Mings, Lucas Digne and Leon Bailey were captured taking conversions
- Quade Cooper and Nic White were among the Australia stars taking part
- ‘Smart’ mouthguards will be given to all teams at the Women’s Rugby World Cup
Australia’s rugby team warmed up for their crunch series decider with England on Saturday by taking part in a training session with Premier League football side Aston Villa.
The Wallabies and Eddie Jones’ England will meet in Sydney this weekend with the series tied at 1-1 after the opening two Tests.
England claimed victory in Brisbane last Saturday after Dave Rennie’s injury-hit Australia squad won the first Test in Perth. It means everything is on the line in Sydney.
The Australia rugby team took part in a training session with Aston Villa on the Gold Coast
Ahead of the game, the Wallabies were joined in a training session by Steven Gerrard’s Villa who are on a pre-season tour of Australia ahead of the start of the 2022/23 Premier League campaign.
Villa stars Tyrone Mings, Leon Bailey and Lucas Digne joined Ahmed Elmohamady for an afternoon with Australia’s rugby union side.
The Villans spoke to Wallabies backs Quade Cooper and Nic White among others before testing their rugby skills and taking part in a crossbar challenge.
Lucas Digne (left) was captured taking conversion attempts alongside his Villa team-mates
Mings also presented the Wallabies with the recently released Aston Villa home shirt, receiving one of the Australian’s gold rugby jerseys in return.
Meanwhile, ‘Smart’ mouthguards will be offered to all teams at the Women’s Rugby World Cup later this year to help better understand and reduce concussion in the female game.
World Rugby confirmed the news on Wednesday.
The technology within the mouthguards will allow researchers to assess the frequency and magnitude of head contact and head accelerations, providing reliable, objective measures of both match and training head impact and contact load to players, coaches and academics.
Matty Cash (front), John McGinn (left), Ollie Watkins (centre) and Tyrone Mings (right) joined in
World Rugby chief Alan Gilpin said he is committed to improving welfare in the female game
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin said: ‘We will never stand still when it comes to embracing the latest technology that has potential to advance player welfare in rugby.
‘Rugby World Cup is the pinnacle of our game and through this study and others which will take place at the tournament, we will make Rugby World Cup 2021 the most advanced major sporting event ever staged when it comes to player welfare.’
This year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup was supposed to be held in 2021 but was delayed by 12 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
England are the favourites for the tournament in New Zealand.
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