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Marcell Coetzee ruled out of Rugby World Cup and facing surgery

By Online Editors
Marcell Coetzee has signed for the Bulls/.

Springboks management have confirmed that Marcell Coetzee will not take part in the Rugby World Cup.

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The injury cursed forward will undergo ankle surgery on Wednesday, 21 August.

The Ulster loose forward hurt his ankle and also suffered a blow to the head in the first half of the Springboks’ 24-18 victory over Argentina in Pretoria.

He will be out of action for up to 12 weeks, which means he is also ruled out of contention for selection for the Springboks’ RWC squad.

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Yesterday the Springboks sent home four players.

Lizo Gqoboka (Vodacom Blue Bulls), Marvin Orie (Xerox Golden Lions), Thomas du Toit and André Esterhuizen (both Cell C Sharks) have been released from the Springbok training squad back to their provinces and will be available for Currie Cup selection this weekend.

The four are members of the Springbok training squad of 36 players who gathered in Bloemfontein on Sunday for the start of a four-day Rugby World Cup camp. They will join their provinces on Tuesday.

On the weekend Erasmus shed light on his thought process going into the final week of selection following his side’s victory of Los Pumas in Pretoria.

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“There were one or two players that had question marks over them and there were some where we got confirmation and others where we had doubts and things clarified. But we will have a proper sit down tomorrow.”

However Erasmus did confirm that two-try hero, Sbu Nkosi, would be in the 31.

Meanwhile Erasmus also said he was delighted with the performance of Siya Kolisi, who was starting his first test of the season.

“We wanted to get Siya off after 30 minutes and see how he would last but with the injury to Marcell Coetzee we had to change our plans,” said Erasmus.

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“At halftime Siya said he was feeling great and that he wanted to go 70, but then he was struggling after 50 minutes. We’ll work really hard on his conditioning and get him right.”

The Springbok group will have a few closed practice sessions in the Free State capital before breaking camp on Thursday, after which the 31-man squad will then gather in Johannesburg for the official announcement of the RWC squad next Monday.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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