‘Shattered’ NSW coach confirms worst injury fears for Wallabies star
Updated . First published at
Jake Gordon’s season is over after the NSW Waratahs stalwart had surgery to repair the Achilles tendon he ruptured in Perth on Saturday night.
The Wallabies halfback took off from a quick tap late in the first half against the Western Force but didn't get far as his right leg gave way.
There are serious injury fears for Jake Gordon. Stan
The popular 32-year-old was immediately in distress as the severity of the injury began to sink in.
“The NSW Waratahs can confirm Jake Gordon successfully underwent surgery on a torn achilles this morning, suffered in our Round 16 fixture against the Western Force in Perth on Saturday,” the club said.
“The scrum-half will be sidelined for a significant period and will miss the Wallabies’ upcoming Nations Championship campaign.”
He will almost certainly miss the entire 2026 Test season.
Waratahs coach Dan McKellar. Getty
“Shattered for Jake,” Waratahs coach Dan McKellar said.
“No-one cares about NSW and the Waratahs more than Jake and just for him to do it in the last game of the season, before the Test season’s about to begin, yeah, disappointing.
“He’s a tough little bugger, very resilient sort of character. But over the next period of time he’ll have his moments no doubt. We’ll make sure we look after him and get around him. He’s certainly a loss (for the Wallabies). He’s got so many qualities to his game that, yeah, it’s unfortunate.”
His former Test teammate Nic White was only metres away watching on the HBF Park sidelines for Stan Sport.
"Jake's had, for the last little while, kind of awareness in that Achilles," White said.
"I'm too close to it but that's gut-wrenching."
There are serious injury fears for Jake Gordon. Stan
White then went to speak to Gordon at halftime.
"Unfortunately, it sounds like he's done his Achilles," he said.
"Said it felt like a weird sensation down there as soon as he took off. He's pretty gutted. I don't know what much more to say there boys. I'm pretty gutted."
The Wallabies kick off their year against Ireland in Sydney on July 4.
Gordon has played 37 Tests and has been Joe Schmidt's preferred starter at No.9.
There are other strong options, however, with Tate McDermott (Queensland Reds) and Ryan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies) at the top of the list.
The Waratahs also lost forwards Pete Samu and Miles Amatosero to injury in the first half.
Inspired by doubles to Dylan Pietsch and Carlo Tizzano, the Force won 31-25 as the rain intensified in the second half.
Flanker Tizzano is now level with Shepherd as the Force's all-time leading try-scorer in Super Rugby.
"I might start crying," Shepherd quipped in commentary.
Carlo Tizzano of the Force celebrates a try. Getty
Neither side were able to qualify for the top-six Super Rugby Pacific finals.
The Force (7-7) finished seventh - their best result in 12 years - while the Waratahs (5-9) wrapped up another dismal campaign in eighth.
"We're very aware that the results haven't been good enough," NSW captain Matt Philip told Stan Sport.
"But we're going to have a really good look at it, put our best foot forward, train hard, and then be better next year...
"I can never fault the boys' effort, you know, they tried hard for 80 minutes there. Same with the whole season.
"Trained hard, played hard, but our execution in areas let us down, and that's not good enough in this competition."
McKellar, who is contracted for one more season, continued to call for patience and was confident he would keep his job.
"We've had our opportunities to be significantly further ahead of where we are and we haven't taken them. So there's nothing else other than disappointment," he said.
"You've got to roll with the punches. Times like this make the good times feel even better and they'll come. We've got a group here that are buying into what we want to do."
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC QUALIFYING FINALS
FRIDAY JUNE 5
Hurricanes (1) vs ACT Brumbies (6): 5.05pm kickoff AEST at Hnry Stadium, Wellington
SATURDAY JUNE 6
Crusaders (3) vs Blues (4): 2.35pm kickoff AEST at One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch
Chiefs (2) vs Queensland Reds (5): 5.05pm kickoff AEST at FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton
