When the Springbok squad of 31 (one more player to be added) was announced on Sunday, my first impression was that there was a squad of fully fit players, bar maybe some niggles after the Currie Cup Final of the day before.
It now appears that there were indeed real injuries to be considered, specifically the injuries of Adriaan Strauss (knee) and Francois Louw (neck) as well as Springbok Captain Jean de Villiers (hamstring).
Adriaan Strauss was withdrawn from the Toyota Free State Cheetahs side who played the Eastern Province Kings on Friday night in their 2nd Promotion / Relegation game in Port Elizabeth, whereas Francois Louw injured his neck playing for Bath in the English Premiership game against Exeter. Adriaan Strauss has since been cleared and will be ready to tour.
The two players will undergo Medical Examinations today, to determine the extent of their injuries and to determine their availability for the End Of Year Springbok Tour to the Northern Hemisphere.
Adriaan Strauss’ injury appear to be an old knee injury playing up and it would appear that his withdrawal last week was precautionary and to ensure he would be ready for the Springbok tour. “It’s an old injury that is giving me trouble, but we will have a look on Monday,” he said. If Adriaan Strauss, now declared fit to play, is selected to play, he will most likely play against his cousin, Richardt Strauss, who was selected for Ireland last week and who could be making his Ireland and International debut against Adriaan and the Springboks.
Francois Louw suffered his neck injury shortly after scoring his side’s 3rd try in Bath’s 23 / 15 win over Exeter. “Francois has got a bad bang on his head and it looks like he’s compacted the vertebrae on his neck so he’s in a lot of pain at the moment. I think it’s going to be a lot sorer in the morning so we will have to evaluate how he gets on,” Bath’s director of rugby, Gary Gold said over the weekend. “We will have a look at him on Monday. He’s available to us for next week’s game and then we will lose him for the tests the Springboks are going to play.” Louw was a standout looseforward since returning to the Springboks and has formed a well-balanced and complete loose trio with Willem Alberts and Duanne Vermeulen at the back of the scrum for the Springboks in the latter stages of The Rugby Championship.
Springbok Captain Jean de Villiers missed the Currie Cup Final game on the weekend and the previous week’s Currie Cup Semi-final due to a hamstring strain and it must be mentioned that he was one of the Springbok players sporting ice packs after training and after games in the recent Rugby Championship every week, the old bones and muscles showing their fatigue.
Jean de Villiers is confident that he will be able to lead the side against Ireland in Dublin though.
The Springboks are missing no less than 13 front-line Springbok players due to injury plus a number of last year’s outstanding Springboks are unavailable due to rugby committments in Japan.
Injured Springboks who were part of the Springbok squad this year alone include Coenie Oosthuizen, Bismarck du Plessis, Tiaan Liebenberg, Andries Bekker, Siya Kolisi, Jacques Potgieter, Pierre Spies, Johan Goosen, Francois Steyn and Bryan Habana. Schalk Burger, Juan Smith and Heinrich Brüssow are also still injured.
Eishhhh, both injuries worry me no end!
There was good balance in the loosies between Flo, Alberts and Vermeulen!
Our hooker stocks are now seriously compromised and depleted, hope Adriaan is fit to play.
Might seem calous of me, but I somehow don’t think Jean de Villiers should play anymore, I’d rather have Juan de Jongh on inside centre and Lionel Mapoe or Paul Jordaan at outside centre.
If Flo is not ready to take part for the Springboks, we have a real conundrum… and I think Heyneke will play Marcell Coetzee at openside in that case.
However, that’s not what I would do, one needs to replace like for like, a fetcher for a fetcher… and accordingly I hope Deon Fourie gets the call-up in case Flo is not ready.
Adriaan should be OK… well I bloody hope so! Another reason why it would be wise to call up Deon Fourie!
Agree on both points
I agree about J de Villiers, injury, age and fatigue mean that he really should be staying at home.
For a controversial statement, how about M Steyn as Captain? If Ostrich is going to continue with what we clearly believe is dumbfounded stubbornness, but what he himself sees as potential and the future of SA flyhalf, why not make him Captain. If Ostrich is going to persist with him in the squad, then to my mind, he must start. He needs to play himself back into form, and perhaps the Captains armband would be something that would make him make the step up, and find his confidence and form back.
It is a short tour, there are no real expectations, it is the perfect environment to experiment, and if he does well, and leads the team well, we would all be made to eat serious humble pie!
We are not gaining anything realistic for the future with having JdV there. He is tying up the centre berth for someone else, and he isn’t the future captain. Come next year, there will be no place to take chances, so why not?
I also hope that if Flo doesn’t make it, Ostrich calls on the services of Fourie
4 @ Just For Kicks:
Making Morné Captain??
Now THAT is real OUT OF THE BOX thinking!
Hehehehe
(Not that I agree with it at all….)
in skok … my brein sukkel om die skok te verwerk v wat daai jong latte vermag het
en
my liggaam sukkel om die skok te verwerk van die PARTIES agterna!!
..
7 @ ashley:
Ek neem aan bloed beginne darem weer vanoggend vloei in jou alkoholstroom!
Hahahaha
gbs @ 8
ek sou so hoop 😉
9 @ ashley:
Julle was seker mal Saterdagnag… en Sondag…. moes rof en onbeskof gewees het.
Ek was by ‘n klein klongetjie se 1ste verjaarsdagpartytjie voor die Final… so paar pappies daar met hulle Tjarks hempies… en kyk, hulle was braaf, daai tyd!
Hahaha
Strauss fit to travel with Boks. Good news that. As he is our vice captain as well.
Hello, it was surpising to read that Jean de Villiers was included in the squad as he couldn’t play for Province on Saturday, but I guess they must have a prognosis that he will soon be over his injury, still a bit of a gamble though I think. This last weekend was a tough one with various England and Ireland squad players picking up injuries. Confused about O’Driscoll’s injury cause he looked in lot of pain after hurting his ankle but then left the field unaided.
Oh yes probably a bit late now but was good to see the squad has Brits in it, he is one I’ve been promoting for a while as a short term option for the Boks. So thats him and Pienaar that I’ve promoted and we have in the squad. Mmmm let me see who I should try promoting next, how fit is Jannie du Plessis are the Boks short on props maybe John Smit should get a call up for this tour
Ireland will definetly be without Rob Kearney for the internationals this Novemeber, he had an operation for a back injury last week and is estimated to be out of the game for 10 weeks. That will be a big blow for them.
England could be missing Courtney Lawes and Dylan Hartley, while Joe Marler is out, thats just off the top of my head.
Wales will be without Dan Lydiate and Toby Falateau got injured last weekend not sure what his status is now, thats just a few can remember.
Scotland has a long injury list, will have to dig it out again sometime.
So all round rugby is taking its toll, probably a combination of too many games and also increased physicality.
Looks like Flo will be fine for the tests. Still has a game with Bath this weekend, so hoping no further damage to the neck. So Strauss and Flo should be fine for this tour. For now that is.
Just a bit of cricket news. See Donald saying South Africa’s attack is the best ever. I think we are too. Proteas are in Oz right now, so Donald saying that over there will fire their press up, that is for sure….hahahaha. Rub it in Donald, just tell em bru.
Here is a copy and paste from Sports24
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Donald: SA attack best ever
2012-10-30 07:44
Allan Donald (Gallo)
Related Links
Asif criticises ICC over ban We won key moments: Haddin PCB mulls Malik coach bid Sydney – South Africa bowling coach Allan Donald on Tuesday called his country’s current pace attack the best he has seen, as they fine-tune ahead of a three Test series against Australia.
Donald in his prime was one of the best fast bowlers ever seen in Test cricket, ripping through opposition batsmen with partner Shaun Pollock, but even he admitted the current crop was a league above.
“I would have to say that, yes,” Donald told reporters.
“I’m not just saying that, because I was part of an attack with Shaun Pollock and myself and a few others, and I say that humbly and respectfully, I think this is as good as it gets.”
South Africa jetted into Australia Sunday aiming to consolidate their position as the number one Test team, which they earned in August with a series triumph in England.
Much pre-series media attention has centred on the quality of the South African pace attack, led by Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel, and how Australia’s top order will deal with them.
Donald, who terrorised opposition batsmen in the 1990s, said the South African bowlers’ greatest asset was their ability to work as a group.
“They’ve been bowling together for quite some time,” he said.
“Momentum’s been built over the past couple of years, consistency in selection and it’s nice to have a group of guys that know what they’re about.”
Australian coach Mickey Arthur, himself a South African, acknowledged earlier this month that his top order batsmen face a “baptism of fire”.
“It’s going to be about the batters,” Arthur said of the series.
“It is going to be about which top six can adapt better, which top six is going to be more consistent over the three Test series. I think both top sixes are in for a real baptism of fire.”
Australia head to the first Test in Brisbane next week with Ed Cowan opening the innings alongside big-hitting David Warner.
They will be followed to the crease by Shane Watson and then 165-Test veteran Ricky Ponting, who is in fine touch, scoring 350 runs at an average of 125.00 in his last three first-class games.
Skipper Michael Clarke is expected to bat five and Mike Hussey six.
After a three-day warm-up against Australia A in Sydney from November 2, the Brisbane Test begins on November 9, the second at the Adelaide Oval on November 22 and the last on November 30 at the Waca in Perth.
Just can’t wait for the tests in Oz. Really looking forward to seeing, Philander, Morkel and Steyn climbing into their batsmen….lol. Hope we win this one as well. The last time we toured there we had won the test series in England as well before touring in Oz. There are two countries I simply hate losing too in cricket and that is England and Australia. Hope we wack the Aussies again on their turf.
Gbs, Proteas are playing their first test on the 9th of November. We have to have a crici thread again. Get Superbul to do us a nice article on our boys over there.
Proteas have truly made me proud this year. Winning that test series in England this year, more so the way they done it was just magnificent.
Go Proteas, do it in Oz again!
Test series in Oz means late, late nights again. Hope you up for it again Superbul. Remember the last series there we were all blogging on keo at the time, and many of us stayed up through the night to blog together while watching our team. That time we just hoped our boys could and they did. This time though we are expecting them to win it. Just hope they do it again.
Same here, Puma.
I just don’t know how I’m going to be balancing the cricket with the 9 to 5!
18 @ Puma:
Don’t worry, we WILL cover the Proteas Tour in Australia!
Suprised to see comment on the DSTV sports (On weather and news channel 415) that the volstruis is now considering Lambie as No 10 now that he has improved his tactical kicking that he ( volstruis) told him to do. Cant see much change in lambies game style at all so I dont know where the improvement suddenly came from.
Sorry – just showed my age and senility. Did not see the earlier story about Meyer taking it on the chin and all the comments , some of which I just repeated.
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