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Former All Black Thomson still struggling to walk
By Online Editors
Former All Black Adam Thomson remains at Tsukuba Memorial hospital in Tokyo, still unable to walk following his mystery illness more than a month after being struck with "excruciating pain".
He was later diagnosed with lumbar discitis — an infection in the intervertebral disc space and expected to make a full recovery and return to training.
However, on Friday Thomson's representative Brooke Howard-Smith said that the 35-year-old's recovery was ongoing.
"We're hoping to have more information next week, but Adam had some blood tests come back yesterday and they were clear of infection," Howard-Smith told the NZHerald.
"At this stage, it looks like it'll be another one to two weeks in hospital for him before he can get out of there.
"As I said, we're hoping to have more information next week, but he's due to come back to Auckland to continue his recovery back in New Zealand next month."
Thomson posted an update last week saying: "Everyday that you can walk yourself to the bathroom is a good day. The first time I tried this I collapsed with my pants around my ankles . . . "
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His playing future remains uncertain after joining NEC Green Rockets in 2017 after four seasons with the Canon Eagles in the Japan Top League.
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Latest Comments
Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".
But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.
The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.
Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?
Go to commentsI think they just need to judge better when it's on and when it's not. If there is a disjointed chase and WJ has a forward in front of him and some space to work with then he should have a crack every time.
If the chase is perfect and the defence is numbered up then it needs to get sent back. From memory they have not really developed a plan for what to do if they take the ball on/in the 22 with a good chase and no counter attacking opportunity.
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