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Skelton joined the Wallabies in Dublin only to be told the injury he suffered playing for club side La Rochelle in France was bad enough to keep him out of the final two games of the spring tour. It was a hammer blow for the tourists at the end of a gruelling Test schedule having played 13 matches around the world in the past 20 weeks and now have to find a way to bounce back after the loss to Italy. But it can be done according to prop Angus Bell, who insisted the Wallabies still have “petrol in the tank”, and despite coach Joe Schmidt’s concern about playing fatigue. “We definitely have enough petrol in the tank,” Bell said in Dublin on Monday. “When you play for the Wallabies, when you play for your country, it’s a massive honour, whether you’ve done it once or 100 times. “Every week is exciting. Every week is an opportunity. I sit here as a 25-year-old and you never know how many more Tests you’re going to play. You never know what’s around the corner. “Every time you pull on that jersey, it’s an absolute privilege, so, for me, there’s no bigger motivator than playing for country, and I know we’re ready for the next two weeks, and we’re going to try really hard to get to resurrect things.” The Wallabies have played in Japan, England and Italy in consecutive weeks, having also gone through the Rugby Championship with games in South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand as well as matches at home. There have been constant squad changes due to injuries and unavailabilities, with veteran playmaker James O’Connor back in the squad in Dublin. The loss to Italy showed signs the toll was starting to take hold of the players, but Bell said “standards” needed to be kept and that was the focus this week before the clash with Ireland after a “tough” review of last weekend’s defeat. “This morning was really tough, but it’s about not taking it personally and just trying to get better,” he said. “We have hard conversations even when we win. I remember after the third Lions Test when we beat them there was still hard conversations happening. “It’s about being in a professional environment and being with a team that holds high standards.” In some positive news, flyhalf Carter Gordon confirmed his early exit from the loss to Italy with quad tightness was precautionary and he’d be fit to tackle Ireland. . “I think we’re just being on the safe side, early in the week,” he said. “We just made a decision that we were going to obviously offload some of that kicking, but ideally, I get back into pretty much doing all of it.”
