He’s struggling to eat cereal but lock Adam Coleman is confident a split lip won’t be stopping him from fronting up against the Pumas on Saturday.
Coleman had 12 stitches in his lip after a knock against the Springboks that ended his night, but the wound won’t hinder him outside of meal times.
“Straw’s my best friend at the moment. It is what it is," he joked.
“I can eat almost everything just very slowly, it takes me about an hour to get through a bloody bowl of cereal.
“It’s just [a] niggle, it’s not going to affect me.
The bump on his lip is a remnant of the intensity with which Coleman has thrown himself into Test rugby, an aggressive approach that has earned him plenty of respect.
At 204cm and 122kg, Coleman has become somewhat of an enforcer in his short Wallabies stint so far and it’s a tag that doesn’t particularly faze him.
“I just do what I’m good at, just stay at I’m good at and play my role for the team," he said.
The 24-year-old has shouldered the major lineout responsibility in the Wallabies’ last two Tests and marked another milestone with his first Test try in Brisbane, finishing off a Will Genia pass to notch the five-pointer, but said he was relishing the opportunity to keep improving.
“We’re still learning, I’m still learning, I’m still developing lineouts and that’s us as a team,” he said.
“We’ve got some very young guys in our team and we’re growing as a group and we’re on the way up.”
Scrum coach Mario Ledesma said Coleman had stepped up to every challenge so far, but they wouldn’t be putting too much pressure on him too soon.
“He's working really hard and he's been helped by the old, the senior guys like Mummy [Dean Mumm], Simmo [Rob Simmons], Fards [Scott Fardy],” he said.
“So, he's part of a group, leadership group in terms of lineout calling but he's just starting so we'll leave him alone with that.”
Coleman’s progression has been rewarded by two consecutive starting selections but he’s not getting complacent just yet.
“Everyone’s here to put their best foot forward, everyone’s here to play for their country and start in that number four and five jersey and at no point do we take that for granted,” he said.
“It’s the whole team that puts the work in during the week it’s not just us as a 23 that you guys get to see, it’s the hard work the non-23 guys have put in too that is going to make us succeed as a team."
The Wallabies host Argentina at nib Stadium on Saturday night, kicking off at 8:05pm AEST. Buy tickets here.
