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Fans hail du Preez's Scotland recall after his unique and harrowing injury
By Josh Raisey
Few players have had a journey as interesting between caps as Scotland’s Cornell du Preez may have. The Worcester Warriors back row has been called up to Gregor Townsend’s squad for the upcoming Six Nations two years after he earned his sixth and last cap but has endured a horrifying time with injury since then.
The 28-year-old joined the Warriors from Edinburgh in the summer of 2018 but fractured his larynx only minutes into his debut after a collision with Wasps’ Joe Launchbury.
He was subsequently out of action for much of the season, having multiple surgeries on his throat, and faced a long battle on the road to recovery. This included not being able to speak for four weeks due to a paralysed left vocal cord and having a tracheostomy.
He returned to action for the final few games of last season for the Warriors, who were struggling near the foot of the Gallagher Premiership. They were able to stave off relegation and have looked far stronger this season with the return of du Preez.
His form for the Warriors has merited a return to the Scotland squad in what is a competitive back row as the Scarlets’ Blade Thomson and the Glasgow Warriors’ Ryan Wilson and Matt Fagerson all miss out.
The South African-born loose forward’s call-up does not surprise any Worcester fans, but his return is an uplifting story after suffering one of rugby’s most unique and harrowing injuries.
This is not the only gruesome injury that du Preez has suffered throughout his career, having broken his ankle during his time in the Scottish capital.
However, that has not shaken his enthusiasm for the game and he has been richly rewarded with this call-up by Townsend. Many are celebrating what an achievement that is.
WATCH: Scotland coach Gregor Townsend names his squad for the 2020 Guinness Six Nations
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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