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South Africa's injury crisis deepens as listed player misses plane

Eben Etzebeth of the Springboks is tackled during the Rugby Championship 2024 match between South Africa Springboks and Argentina Pumas at Mbombela Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Nelspruit, South Africa. (Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

South Africa’s injury situation appears to be approaching crisis proportions. Rugby 365 has revealed this evening that another player, still listed as a member of the Springbok squad, did not get on the plane when it departed for a training camp in Jersey on Sunday.

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The team will prepare there for a week ahead of their year-end Tests against Scotland, England and Wales.

Prop Frans Malherbe is the latest casualty.

He was one of three Springboks injured in the Stormers’ 17-28 United Rugby Championship loss to the defending champions, Glasgow Warriors, in Stellenbosch at the weekend.

The others were utility back Damian Willemse and loose forward Ben-Jason Dixon.

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Willemse, who suffered a groin injury while scoring a try at the Danie Craven Stadium, was officially withdrawn on Sunday and replaced by Bulls loose forward Cameron Hanekom.

Dixon, who was not selected for the tour, suffered a knee injury and went for scans.

@rugby365com can also reveal that Willemse, who only recently returned from finger surgery that saw him miss all the mid-year and Rugby Championship Tests, will be sidelined for three to four months with the groin injury.

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He is unlikely to be back in action before February next year.

The big concern for the Boks will be the absence of stalwart prop Malherbe, who rolled his ankle against the Warriors.

He is the third Bok casualty since the year-end tour squad was announced last week.

Johan Grobbelaar (hooker) and Wilco Louw (prop) were called up to replace the injury withdrawal of utility forward Jan-Hendrik Wessels.

On Sunday Willemse was replaced by Hanekom, but no replacement was announced for Malherbe.

The official Springbok media release still lists him as a member of the touring squad.

However, there are now only two specialist tighthead props in the group – Vincent Koch and Wilco Louw, although Thomas du Toit can play on both sides of the front row.

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The loosehead props are Ox Nche and Gerhard Steenekamp.

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Comments

14 Comments
J
Jacque 255 days ago

Blessing.

L
Lulu 255 days ago

Can't see this as a crisis. SA are just churning out talent similarly to AB a couple of years ago

J
JD 254 days ago

We're going to need our best team to beat England. Losing Malherbe is bad. Very bad.

B
Bull Shark 255 days ago

What’s the use of having all that depth and then calling it a crisis when we have injuries.


No crisis here. Calm down everyone.


What’s more interesting to me is who gets called into take Malherbe’s place in the touring squad. A backline player? A forward?


Safe bet would be another tighthead and Mchunu would be a good choice. Spending some time with the team on tour will be good development for him. Even if he spends most of his time warming Ox up. But I can see him playing in Wales if he got called up.


Jordan Hendrikse would be a great backline call up. Well deserved. That kid looks on fire are the moment. @DP

R
RedWarrior 255 days ago

Is scrumhalf Williams travelling? To say that pair hurt Munster at the weekend is a bit of an understatement.

L
Lulu 255 days ago

Agree with Mchunu. Good prospect for the boks. Trying to predict Rassie, I have given up. Genius or mad man who knows.

Jordan has come on nicely since his debut. Seen that confidence grow. Would like to see him on a 6:2 split on the bench and just given a chance to settle in.

D
DP 255 days ago

Yep! Silver linings and all that..!

P
PR 255 days ago

Hardly a crisis - Boks have played without Willemse all year and Wessels is a fringe player who is still a work in progress. Malherbe is a blow but Louw and Koch are both world class. Tbh - Boks were in a worse position earlier this year when they had three locks out.

J
JD 255 days ago

That is really bad news. I hope it's not serious.

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takata 1 hour ago
Can Les Bleus avoid a Black-wash in New Zealand?

Please, tell me who exactly are all those millionaires owning the Top 14?


And, by the way, can you tell me who are also those that ever transformed a single French club into their cash cow?


It’s probably an old cliché comming from, some time ago in early pro time, the revival of both Ile-de-France clubs by private investors like J. Lorenzetti at Racing 92, or the rise of Toulon’s “Gallacticos” under Mourad Boudjellal, ending with the very noisy late Altrad investments into Montpellier-Hérault. Even if a few major titles were collected by those clubs, and that it would indeniably have helped to rise the fame of the whole Top 14, the global return on private investments simply didn’t ever pay back what they put in.


Another look into the last decade will show you that French clubs are not millionaires pet-projects either. From this season top 6, amongst Stade Toulousain (1st), Union Bordeaux-Bègles (2nd), Rugby Club Toulonnais (3rd), l’Aviron Bayonnais (4th), Clermont-Auvergne (5th) and Castres Olympique (6th), only the last two are backed by historical corporate entities: Michelin (tires) for Clermont and Laboratoires Pierre Fabre (pharma) for Castres.


That’s long term sponsorship from those city main industries and, with Stade Toulousain since 1907, Clermont and Castres (one of the lowest budget in Top 14), are also the oldest members of the French rugby club elite. This certainly prove some healthy stability in their management. They are in fact as far away from marketing “products” that they are from Paris.


But in Top 14, as reflected by their national team selection, club power is certainly measured by their success. The most successful of them all, Stade Toulousain, reached a 2023-2024 budget comparable with the lower end of a French elite football club (those not named PSG) and half of it’s income (€30 millions) was comming from merchandising sales only. Last monday, UBB sold out, in a matter of few hours, its 20K season ticket (out of their 32K seats stadium) and La Rochelle’s stadium was also sold out faster than I can type it for every single game of last season; and so on.


Now, take only those three clubs providing 90% of the national team and paying 100% of their wages. Tell them that the share of the limited game time allowed to their top players, will rise from 25% to 40% for the national team, without any further compensation for the club than allowing them to spend more in recruitment (of probably lesser quality substitutes).


See how it goes now with their board and Presidents, even if probably all of them are turning real profits.

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