Springbok wing a major doubt for Rugby Championship
South Africa winger Sbu Nkosi is a major doubt for the Rugby Championship after suffering an ankle injury that could see him miss up to 12 weeks.
Nkosi impressed in his first three international appearances during the Springboks' series win over England in June, scoring two tries.
The 22-year-old returned to Super Rugby action with the Sharks but the team confirmed on Thursday that Nkosi has suffered a syndesmosis sprain in his left ankle, leaving him doubtful for South Africa's next international outing.
Nkosi is expected to miss up to three months with the injury, with the Sharks hopeful he could be back in eight weeks.
An early return would mean only missing back-to-back matches with Argentina, although the wing would be lacking in match fitness for a clash with Australia on September 8.
Should he miss the full 12 weeks, South Africa will only welcome him back on October 4 – just two days before their final match with New Zealand in Pretoria.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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