Springboks’ injuries aggravated ahead of next clash against All Blacks - Rugby News
Two more injuries to the Springboks’ team have further deepened their fitness issues as they have been struggling with huge causalities since the end of Super Rugby 2011. The fresh injuries to Flip van der Merwe and Heinrich Brussow have further decreased
their options for the upcoming clash against the All Blacks on July 30. Springboks coach, Peter de Villiers, told the media on July 26 that the pair will miss the upcoming match against the All Blacks due to various injuries.
The longer than usual season of the Super Rugby affected the fitness of a large number of South African and the selectors were forced to rule out 23 players from the opening two games of the Tri-Nations Cup.
De Villiers further told the media that Van der Merwe has been ruled out of the whole Tri-Nations Cup due to a rib injury. The lock sustained the devastating injury during their last match against the Wallabies on July 23. De Villiers also told the reporters
that the other injured player, Johann Muller, will miss their next match of the continuing tournament against New Zealand due to a hamstring problem.
The Springboks had included plenty of new faces in their squad for the all important event before Rugby World Cup 2011 and they were beaten by the Australians with a huge margin of 39-20 in the very first match of the Tri-Nations. Their captain, John Smit,
has been criticised for their poor output in Sydney.
The former coach of the Springboks, Jake White, expressed his concern about the ongoing injuries woes of South Africa and said it could harm them in the Rugby World Cup 2011. He said that, “I'm not critical at all about Peter. I'm just critical about the
fact that maybe there was a gap that was missed for South Africa to maybe stake a claim going forward in the campaign. You want to go into the World Cup with some sort of momentum, and you want to go into the World Cup knowing you can beat anybody.”
The Springboks will play their second match of Tri-Nations Cup 2011 on July 30 in Wellington.
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