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Springboks statement: Boks return to training after outbreak scare
By Ian Cameron
The Springboks are making a return to the training field after their Sunday session was cancelled following a Covid-19 scare.
Three players tested positive for the virus, but one of the players, Stormers' scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, has since been cleared to return to action. The positive Tests have sent a warning shot across the series, just a couple of weeks prior to the British & Irish Lions' first Test against South Africa.
A statement reads: "The Springboks will immediately resume their preparations for the forthcoming Tests against Georgia after feedback received from the Castle Lager Lions Series Medical Advisory Group.
"Three players tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday following real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on arrival at the team hotel in Johannesburg, however, Herschel Jantjies (scrumhalf) has subsequently been cleared and can return to training.
"In light of this, the strict precautionary measures taken by the team and the effective isolation protocols since the squad assembled, the Springboks can resume their training programme from Monday afternoon.
"The Bok team to face Georgia in the first of two Test matches, at Loftus Versfeld on Friday, will be announced on Tuesday. The second Test is scheduled for Emirates Airline Park next week Friday, 9 July."
South Africa is currently gripped by a third wave of the pandemic, with the country's President Cyril Ramaphosa introducing new lockdown measures to battle the threat posed by the Delta variant of the respiratory illness that is currently ravaging the Rainbow Nation, with Johannesburg and Pretoria being particularly hard hit.
Meanwhile British & Irish Lions landed in South Africa today after making a winning 28 - 10 start to the tour against Japan in what was ulitmately a comfortable warm-up in Murrayfield on Saturday. It however came at a cost, with Warren Gatland's side losing skipper Alun Wyn Jones and flanker Justin Tipuric in the space of 11 minutes.
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The match experience still sucks at SR games, irrespective of the game being a little quicker. Rugby has to compete with so much in the modern world, if you’re going to get people to leave their houses and pay to watch a game in winter then the experience has to be worthwhile.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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