Force prop Cowan ready to shoulder big role

[travelling_gerry]

Force prop Cowan ready to shoulder big role

NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian June 8, 2010, 6:40 am

Getty Images / Paul Kane ©




Western Force prop Pek Cowan could be in for a tough few days.
The specialist loosehead, who stepped into the hooking role when the Force began this year's Super 14 season without an experienced rake, will start for the Australian Barbarians against England at ME Bank Stadium tonight.
The run-on comes on the back of 30 minutes off the bench in the 49-3 win against Fiji on Saturday.
And he could be in for another big role in Saturday's Test against England at Subiaco Oval.
The Wallabies, suffering front row injury problems - latest casualty Ben Alexander is expected to be out for six weeks with a medial ligament strain - are set to go into the game with an inexperienced trio.
It would mean Cowan shouldering a huge workload. While he said he would relish the Test match opportunity, he wasn't thinking past tonight.
Wallaby coach Robbie Deans believes Cowan and his clutch of young front-rowers are ready for the challenge.
"We have the benefit of having a number of emerging front-rowers. We have gone through a generational change," Deans said.
"We are coming into a good generation of front-rowers.
"Ben Alexander got his opportunity off the back of two minutes of Super rugby in 2008. These blokes have earned the right for selection of full campaigns. They've played and performed against international front-rowers all year.
"Not only have they earned the right but shown they are perfectly able at this level."
Deans said there were now more opportunities for young players to make their mark than in previous years.
"There wasn't a lot of access there for a while...and we've now got a queue of blokes putting their hand up, excited about the opportunities that are there," he said.
England coach Martin Johnson acknowledged Deans' front row injury woes could be an advantage but was not taking anything for granted.
"If you're complacent you tend to find you come second," he said.
"They won't be pleased that they have got guys out. They've got some injury issues but so have we."
Tonight's Australian side may be going under the name Barbarians but Deans and Johnson are taking the clash as seriously as any Test.
"We're treating it as an international. We had a Test match on Saturday night and we've got another international tonight," Deans said.
"You could argue that this will be more of an international than Saturday night (against Fiji)."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...lder-big-role/

[Burgs]

Ok, JO'C may not be "small" anymore, but the photo demonstrates he aint exactly huge either, none of these blokes are imposingly big for their respective positions and he is dwarfed by them.