Ex Supersport
he Springbok management stopped short of blaming the franchises for the current injury crisis in South African, but admitted to being “frustrated” with the way players were handled in the recent Vodacom Super Rugby tournament.
Bok coach Heyneke Meyer was forced to pick an extended squad of 49 players – 13 of which are injured at the moment, including several key players that the Boks would normally rely heavily on during the international season and all who are likely to play key parts in the Rugby World Cup campaign this year.
But the Bok medical staff are justifiably irritated at the franchises, almost all of whom agreed to give players specific resting time during the Super Rugby campaign but went back on their word and broke the gentleman’s agreement that was brokered before the season.
Several of the top injuries in the Bok camp can be directly attributed to this – as players were injured in their seventh consecutive game – where the Bok management had asked for a rest period after every five games. In most cases – the Toyota Cheetahs are the exception – the franchises simply ignored the agreement and rested the players where they felt they could afford to.
Now with a tough international season looming, and an unforgiving public who want results before the World Cup arrives, Meyer must stitch together a squad of players, several of whom will make their return from injury and try and regain fitness and form before the Rugby World Cup.
Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts didn’t shy away from the question, admitting frustration but stopping short of laying all the blame at the franchises. It is understandable because the Boks now need the franchises to help players return to form through the Absa Currie Cup and need their co-operation to get players fit again.
“There is a reason we asked the guys to be rested after five weeks, because we know once you play a certain number of weeks your risk of being injured increases. That is why it wasn’t just a number we sucked out of our thumb,” Dr Roberts explained.
“We asked for them to play five games whereafter we wanted them to rest. Unfortunately some of the franchises didn’t comply with that and we did have players who in their next game picked up an injury.
“That is what we are trying to prevent. It has been frustrating for us, some players have been rested really well and some franchises have been really good in applying the rest but I think some of those were preventable. But what is done is done, we need now to pick up the pieces and do the best that we can.”
And pick up the pieces the Boks must do – especially as almost all the coaches who failed to work with the national team are now looking for new jobs, or are moving on, and the Bok team suffers.
Dr Roberts and his team now need to try and formulate the correct way of getting every player back, when ideally the option would have been to have the same team play together for the international season to build momentum going into the World Cup.
Once again despite all the efforts to put the Springboks first, self-interest is the biggest threat to the Rugby World Cup campaign.
Contrast this to New Zealand, where the All Black players were rested and conditioned at the beginning of the season, with several of them coming into form at the right time ahead of the upcoming Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
Dr Roberts said it was a massive concern for the national team and a puzzle they now need to negotiate to get players back to form.
“It’s a concern from both points of view. You want guys to play and when they have had a long term injury you want them to build that confidence and get better and better as he plays. From a medical point of view we want to make sure the player is over his injury, so it is tricky how we get that game time, there are some Currie Cup games we need to talk to the franchises to release the players for those games. That is a discussion that the coaching staff will have with the franchises on where will get that game time for them.”
While Coenie Oosthuizen is the worst of the worries, Dr Roberts spent a lot of time outlining all the injury concerns that the Boks need to overcome.
“Pieter-Steph (du Toit) is doing quite nicely at the moment, obviously it is the first session with us today and we know what the Sharks are doing with him. It is about finding him game time at the right time, testing where he is and we anticipate he will only be available for the last few games of the rugby championship if all goes well but it is going to be a week by week basis if we do that,” Roberts explained.
“We’re very happy with Jean (de Villiers’) progress, his medical team has been working very hard with him, we’re happy but it is progression now, and we need to decide when we need to get him back to playing. We’re hoping to get him some game time, but it depends on how he progresses week by week, but we’re very happy at the moment.
“Duane (Vermeulen) has been struggling with a neck problem, with a nerve that has irritated him. He needs a lot of rest and rehabilitation and it looks like he won’t be available for the first couple of games as well. We will just have to see how he progresses. Fourie du Preez unfortunately injured his knee at training, he sent me the video and it was a freak accident at training. He has injured his medial collateral ligaments and those can be anywhere from four to eight weeks. We will need to assess him and see where he is but it obviously puts pressure on him not being available for a few of the games as well.
“Jaque Fourie is not currently injured, we did have him on our injured list because he hasn’t played for a while, and he needs quite a bit of conditioning. He isn’t going to be considered for the first couple of games unless he shows from a conditioning perspective that he is where we want him. At the moment it is just working on his conditioning with the team at the moment.
“Pat Lambie has been cleared by the specialist. He still needs to progress his rehabilitation. He can start taking contact, this week we will get him to start hitting bags and next week start to do some proper tackling. Then a decision about when he will return from a long injury like that, when he will get game time will be the decision – whether it will be for 20 minutes in a test or if we will look at another game for him.”
In addition to this Cobus Reinach looks set to make a return from a hand injury in time for the first few games, as will Schalk Burger (groin injury). Heinrich Brussow is progressing well with his fractured arm as is Lood de Jager while both Lionel Mapoe (knee ligaments) and Jan Serfontein (hip flexor) both need more time to recover but are also doing well.
Either way Meyer and his medical squad have their work cut out for them – especially as they face a World XV, followed by Australia and World Champions New Zealand before home and away games against Argentina. The Boks may need to mix and match their squad to both utilize form and bring players back from injury, all of which could have been prevented if franchises had looked after the players better.
