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Watch: Great day turns ugly as Springbok Jesse Kriel has nasty head clash in match-winning performance
By Sam Smith
Springbok centre Jesse Kriel has inspired his Canon Eagles side to a 40-32 win over Yamaha Jubilo in the latest round of the Japan Top League, but a gruesome injury soured his day somewhat.
Two second half tries by Kriel kept his side in the hunt as they looked to get their first win of the season after three opening losses to keep their season hopes alive.
The first try came on a wrap around play which saw the centre juggle a pass before regathering to score in the corner with an outstretched hand. The put down was on a tightrope with Kriel's legs narrowly missing touch as he powered over in a two-man tackle.
The second try was a well-worked set-piece move which saw Kriel recieve the last pass to score directly under the posts after an inside ball to Canon winger and fellow South African SP Marias.
It wasn't all great news for Kriel, who was involved in an ugly head clash with Australian flyhalf Sam Greene which left the Springbok with a monster cut above his left eye.
In a photo shared by Kriel after the match with the caption 'winners are grinners', up to seven staples are seen on a makeshift stitch-up of the gruesome cut.
Kriel's two-try performance moved his season tally to three, which is one behind Springbok teammate Malcolm Marx at NTT Shining Arcs and equal with Willie Le Roux at Toyota Verblitz.
Watch: Jesse Kriel's two tries for Canon against Yamaha below.
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Latest Comments
I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
Go to commentsEngland played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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