Jaded and jet lagged, the All Blacks received a boost on arrival in Johannesburg today with news the Springboks may lose two of their best players for this weekend's test at Ellis Park.
Brutal Boks No 8 Duane Vermeulen is in major doubt after suffering rib cartilage damage in the win over the Wallabies on Saturday (NZT Sunday).
He was probably the best player in the tense loss to the All Blacks in Wellington this month - pulling off a series of crunching hits, scuffling with Brodie Retallick in back play and throwing himself into the breakdown.
All season, Vermeulen has consistently set the tone of physicality for the South African pack, assuming a Bismarck du Plessis-like intimidation role.
All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock missed three weeks with a similar injury before returning against Argentina in La Plata at the weekend.
Vermeulen will be monitored throughout the week and given every chance to recover, but is considered a 50 per cent chance at best.
"This year again he's taken his game to another level," New Zealand flanker Sam Cane said of Vermeulen.
"His presence at the breakdown has been massive for South Africa. He's a big man but he gets down low over the ball and he's hard to move. We've seen what he can do with his ball carrying.
"He's a physical, direct No 8 with some good skills to go with it. They'll be hoping he's available for sure."
The Boks loose-forwards have already been hit by injury this year - they haven't fielded their first-choice trio since June.
With flankers Willem Alberts and Francois Louw sidelined, South African coach Heyneke Meyer recently equated that to the All Blacks losing Richie McCaw and Kieran Read. This will be an area the All Blacks will feel they can target.
Should Vermeulen be ruled out, Meyer may opt to stick with rookie flanker Teboho "Oupa" Mohoje - who made his test debut last week and was thrust to the fore of a race row amid suggestions his selection was driven by political influence - and promote veteran enforcer Schalk Burger from the bench to fill Vermeulen's role at the back.
Alternatively, Meyer could drop Mohoje, start Burger and call up Lions captain Warren Whiteley to start at eight.
The Boks are also sweating on Bryan Habana's fitness after the centurion took a head knock mid-way through the first half against Australia in Cape Town last week.
"Although Bryan returned to the field late in the first half, he developed some symptoms of concussion at the break and we decided to replace him permanently with JP Pietersen," Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts said.
"He will need to follow the standard stepwise post-concussion return-to-play protocol before being considered for the test at Ellis Park."
Retallick is also to be assessed along the same guidelines over the next 24 hours, but both Whitelock, who sat next to his locking partner on the flight from to South Africa via Brazil, and Cane seemed confident he would recover.
"Yeah I think so," Whitelock said.
"He was pretty cheeky during the first bit and then we all fell asleep."
In their only outdoor training session today, the All Blacks went through some light-hearted activities to get the blood flowing in an attempt to shake off jet lag. Further strategy meetings will take place tonight with training to ramp up over the coming days.
"We're a little bit jaded but hopefully we get a good night's rest tonight and we'll be ready to go tomorrow," Whitelock said.
- Stuff
