1
Springboks statement: Pollard and Am's Championship-ending injuries
By Liam Heagney
Jacques Nienaber’s Springboks will finish out their Rugby Championship campaign without fly-half Handre Pollard and centre Lukhanyo Am following their respective knee injuries in last Saturday’s round three loss to the Wallabies in Adelaide.
Pollard and Am were left out of the much-changed Springboks XV named for this Saturday’s rematch with Australia in Sydney, coach Nienaber explaining at his team announcement that an update on the injury situation would likely be provided on Wednesday.
This has now happened and it is bad news for Pollard and Am as they will return to their respective clubs, Leicester Tigers and Cell C Sharks, for further medical advice, ruling them out of the Springboks’ round five and six matches versus Argentina in Buenos Aires on September 17 and in Durban on September 24.
A Springboks statement read: “Fly-half Handre Pollard and centre Lukhanyo Am will return to their clubs for further medical assessments after being ruled out of Saturday’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash against Australia in Sydney.
“Both players suffered knee injuries against Australia in Adelaide last weekend, which prompted the decision to send them back to the Leicester Tigers and Cell C Sharks respectively for further medical advice. Elton Jantjies (hand) and Pieter-Steph du Toit (knee), meanwhile, will remain in camp, as they are expected to recover sufficiently from their injuries for the last two matches of the team’s campaign.”
Springboks coach Nienaber said no replacements would be called up at this stage as they have sufficient cover within the squad. However, if the need arises, they will call on reinforcements. “It’s always unfortunate to lose players in a squad, but this opens the door for other players to step in and showcase what they can do in those positions,” he said.
“We will now have 32 players in camp and with Elton expected to recover for the matches against Argentina and players such as Andre (Esterhuizen) and Jesse (Kriel) and Frans (Steyn) all being capable centres, we are well covered.”
Pollard was set to arrive at Leicester at the end of the Championship and would have been expected to make his Gallagher Premiership debut at some stage in October following his high-profile signing from Montpellier as the replacement for England's George Ford, who had left for Sale. Am had also made a club move in 2022, switching from the Kobe Steelers in Japan to the URC Sharks.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
OTD – Declan Kidney takes step up into Test rugby
3
'Damaging' Jordie Barrett move only helps All Blacks- ex-Ireland wing
4
Stuart Hogg addresses rumours of rugby return
5
Latest Comments
Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
Go to comments