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Gatland delivers a depressing update about Russell's Lions injury
Warren Gatland has admitted it is possible that Finn Russell could head home early from the Lions tour if there is no improvement in his problematic achilles which resulted in Saturday’s confirmed call up to the squad of England out-half Marcus Smith.
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Russell was due to take a place on the Lions bench for their rematch with the Sharks but he didn’t tog out and was replaced in the replacements by Bundee Aki, a development that Gatland has now admitted is a wait-and-see situation regarding whether the Scotland No10 will play any further part in the tour of South Africa.
Explaining the background to his call to England to bring in Smith and what exactly is the nature of the Russell injury, Gatland said at his post-match media briefing on Saturday night: “We made a call to England last night [Friday], a courtesy call about his [Smith’s] availability, the fact that we were going to call him up. And Finn Russell has had an injection.
“It isn’t a strained achilles, there is a slight little wee tear in it so it is going to keep him out for the next couple of weeks. We are going to try and see if we can rehab him. He is going to be in a boot for the next five days and when he comes out of that, he will have some more treatment and he will still continue to get treatment over the next five days and if he is making good progress then we will assess him going forward. If he is not there is a possibility that he may go home. It’s a wait-and-see situation.”
Russell wasn’t meant to be involved in the midweek Lions win over the Sharks but he played off the bench after Gatland was forced to make eight late changes to his matchday 23. He was then due to be on the bench again in the Sharks rematch but he pulled out of a contest where Lions went on to have their problems asserting their authority.
PLAYER RATINGS: The scoreline flattered the Lions after what was a messy Round 2 against the Sharks#LionsRugby #SHAvBIL https://t.co/QjoLkZOZyz
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 10, 2021
With the scores tied at 26-all at the interval, winning momentum only swung the way of the Lions when Jaden Hendrikse – a first-half try-scorer – was red-carded on 46 minutes and the tourists went on to dominate the remaining part of the match by seven tries to one to finish 71-31 winners against an opposition they had defeated 54-7 in midweek.
In keeping with the chaotic nature of the tour, Gatland also admitted he still wasn’t 100 per cent sure of the exact identity of the opposition the Lions will face next Wednesday in Cape Town. They are due to play South Africa A but that fixture is poised to be pushed back until next weekend with the Stormers match being brought forward by three days.
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“There is a pretty good chance they will switch the Stormers and South Africa A game around but nothing has been confirmed yet,” he said. “You have just got to roll with the punches. We had a challenging day last Wednesday and then Maro (Itoje) had a bit of a tummy bug last night and then we had a make a late change, and we had to bring in Bundee too. Those sort of things happen and guys have been dealing with it fantastically. We have just got to go with the flow and react to what is thrown at us.”
Emotional reaction after he learned he will be going to South Africa for the Lions and not heading to Wembley as planned to watch the England footballers in the Euro 2020 final #LionsRugby #ENGvCANhttps://t.co/r1oh60I7VM
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 10, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments