PROP Al Baxter and his front-row colleagues have vowed to win the World Cup on Saturday for their injured Wallaby team-mate Ben Darwin, whose rugby career hangs in the balance after he suffered a neck injury in Australia's semi-final victory over New Zealand.
Darwin heard his neck crack in a scrum and was saved by the quick thinking of Kees Meeuws, who responded to his opponent's terrified calls of "neck, neck, neck" and immediately stopped pushing.
The Australian tight-head prop had no feeling from the neck down for two agonising minutes and after he was stretchered from the field, medics diagnosed a prolapsed disc had touched the spinal cord.
He will be able to walk out of hospital and would love nothing more than to be at Telstra Stadium on Saturday night to watch the Wallabies' tilt for glory.
It is bitter-sweet for Baxter, who was yesterday confirmed in an otherwise unchanged starting line-up to mark an extraordinary year, and he vowed to win 'Bill' - what the Wallabies affectionately call the Webb Ellis trophy - for Darwin.
"You never want to get a position through someone else's misfortune," said Baxter, whose international break came in the final Tri-Nations game against New Zealand when Patricio Noriega pulled out injured.
"I had a chat with Ben. We have to focus on the game now. We don't want to let Ben down. He put lot of hard work in and did a lot for the team."
Darwin's injury and Baxter's promotion into the starting XV opened the door for the inexperienced Matt Dunning to come onto the bench, from where he will win only his second Test cap.
