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The big Springbok omission set to benefit from a Vermeulen withdrawal

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Veteran Duane Vermeulen appears to be the first major injury casualty ahead of the British and Irish Lions series against the Springboks in July – writes Jan De Koning.

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South Africa’s Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus admitted the injury to Vermeulen ‘doesn’t look good’, after the World Cup-winning No.8 hobbled off in the Rainbow Cup encounter between the Bulls and Stormers at Loftus Versfeld this past Friday.

Vermeulen, 34 and capped 54 times by the Boks since his debut almost a decade ago, left the field just on the half-hour mark and immediately put ice on the injured ankle.

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Bulls coach Jake White said in the post-match media briefing he was fearing the worst – a sentiment echoed by both coach Jacques Nienaber and Erasmus.

Erasmus said Vermeulen was on his way to Cape Town for a scan and they will have to “wait and see”, but it certainly looked bad.

“He wouldn’t have limped off if it wasn’t serious, so we are unfortunately fearing for the worst.

“We always expected [injury setbacks] with the Rainbow Cup being strength versus strength and SA derbies are brutal.

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“So far we have been fortunate, touch wood, and hopefully next week in the last round we don’t loose any players.

“We did expect some big losses and I expect Duane might be one of them.”

While Vermeulen’s injury will be a blow – as a result of the loss of his experience, physicality and leadership – both Erasmus and Nienaber felt there is more than adequate back-up, both in the squad named at the weekend and the fringe players around.

One of the big names to miss out is 30-times capped Marcell Coetzee, who returned from a long-term injury in the same match that saw Vermeulen injured.

Coetzee <a href=
Ulster Bulls” width=”1200″ height=”675″ /> (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
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“For us to draft a player in, it is just a day,” Erasmus told the media briefing.

“If we have an injury, the player can join the next day if he has a negative [COVID-19] result.

“Some of those players might be disappointed now,” he said of Coetzee, adding: “However, it is strategic to allow him to get more game time.”

Erasmus said the reason why European-based players like Rudolph Snyman and Lodewyk de Jager are not required to first have games when they come back from injury is because they have won the World Cup for the Boks and have played more than 20 Tests with the team.

“We know what we have in them and we know how to get them fit.”

Already in the Bok squad, named at the weekend, are players like Dan du Preez, Albertus Smith, Marco van Staden and the uncapped Jasper Wiese.

Vermeulen
Duane Vermeulen of the Springboks clings to ball during June Test against England. (Photo by Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images)

Erasmus said England-based Wiese “knocked the door down” with his form and won’t let the team down.

Bok coach Jacques Nienaber suggested the World Cup Final squad will form the basis of the Test team against the British and Irish Lions.

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“I won’t say it is out [a lost cause] for the other players,” Nienaber told @rugby365com.

“It would be stupid to suggest the guys who played in the World Cup is now second- or third-best. They have been there and done well in the past.

“[However,] if a guy knocks the door down in training, there is no reason why an uncapped player won’t start.

“I will say this much, the guys who were at the World Cup are certainly not showing a sense of entitlement. They are all working hard and playing well.”

He admitted those players that missed out – like Marcell Coetzee (who still needs game time after coming back from injury), Lizo Gqoboka (still injured) and John Schickerling (injured) – can still get a look in.

Coetzee played his first game when he featured for the Bulls against the Stormers this past Friday, after being out with an injury since early March.

“That is the advantage we have with a guy like Marcell [Coetzee], now playing in South Africa. He can play [for the Bulls] in the Rainbow Cup [next week’s final league fixture and possibly the Final], as well as the [Bulls’] encounter with the B&I Lions [at Loftus Versfeld on July 10].

“We might have more injuries.”That is when guys like that [Coetzee, Gqoboka and Schickerling] will make the squad.”

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J
Jfp123 40 minutes ago
France push All Blacks to 80th minute in narrow Dunedin defeat

Sorry, I don’t think all your points hold water.


You agree that the Top14 was sticking within the rules. Describing it as ‘attack’ing international rugby isn’t fair. It’s simply doing it’s own thing, which benefits many other rugby nations too, more of which below. NZ rugby has one system of earning money, the French have another, and it looks to me like theirs is more successful, but that’s no reason to try and shoot it down. Unlike some NZ commentators, I haven’t heard any of the French expressing the wish to interfere with how NZ organise their domestic competition and finances. Different circumstances require different arrangements.


The way you talked about earning money from home internationals, it sounds as if you think the French B team are depriving NZ of income. Really? Instead accusing the French of acting badly, wouldn’t it be better to think of ways of improving the NZ system, even it’s just being more careful who’s invited on tour. It’s well known France never send out their top players in summer.


In any case, the charge of loss of income doesn’t seem to be backed by the facts. As far as I’m aware there haven’t been any complaints about the size of the TV deal. It’s been reported that the NZ- France summer internationals are sell outs, and since you or another New Zealander - I can’t remember which set of comments it was - was complaining about how outrageously high the ticket prices are, it doesn’t sound as if NZ rugby has lowered prices and been hit in the pocket - NZ can’t have it both ways.


If NZ were to have a rethink and follow the example of SA and Scotland to allow players who sign on with a Top14 team to play for the ABs, I think NZ could use the Top14 for its own benefit. Players often improve through being exposed to different approaches, and previously hidden talent can come to light. Cheslin Kolbe was overlooked by the SA main team, until his immense talent was showcased during his time at Toulouse. More recently, Jack Willis and Blair Kinghorn have both acknowledged that Toulouse has helped them broaden and develop their skills - Willis has done quite a lot of interviews which are freely accessible online, if you want to hear what he says. Scotland have benefited, but England haven’t because of their self-imposed rules. From what Willis said around the time of the WC when he had special dispensation to play for England in consideration of the Wasps debacle, it seems Toulouse encourage their foreign players in their international ambitions, rather than acting as an insurmountable obstacle.


I don’t see where your point about home grown talent is coming from. The vast majority of the French team IS home grown talent. Listen to Squidge’s or 2 Cents podcasts on the subject before the last WC. Mauvaka and Moefana both were born in islands which are part of a French overseas territory, came to France young, trained there and have French nationality, Meafou was rejected by Aussie clubs as too large, and was advised to go to France where they appreciate size to get an opportunity to continue his career - do you think he should have been left on the scrap heap in Oz? The only French international I can think of who came from NZ is Uini Atonio, he doesn’t seem to have been appreciated in NZ and has played his entire senior club career at La Rochelle, where he’ll become a player/coach next season; he’s actually of Samoan heritage. I’ve read that NZ was interested in Patrick Tuifua, but he was born in the French territory of New Caledonia, not NZ and is moving to Toulon. Marchand, Aldegheri, Baille, Gros, Cros, Jelonche, Alldritt, Ollivon, Dupont, Penaud, LBB Lucu, Ramos, Fikou, Barrassi, Villiere etc, are all indisputably French, Ntamack is French on his mother’s side, 2nd generation French on his father’s side and has played for Toulouse since infancy, Pasolo Tuilagi has lived in France since the age of 3 and is French, similarly Joshua Brennan. I believe they have both declared their desire to play for the country where they grew up, not Samoa or Ireland. Flament, it’s true, is from Belgium, but his talents could hardly have flourished fully in a team which almost certainly isn’t fully professional. A rugby side is 15 with 8 on the bench in France as everywhere else, packed with all these talented native players, they’re not going to suck the life out of other nations. In fact, there’s a counter example. Capuozzo was born and raised in France, and I’ve heard it said both that he began playing for Italy is because he didn’t think he’d make the French team, or alternatively, that he preferred to play for the country of his paternal grandparents.


I can’t see why you say NZ, England and Ireland are more homegrown than that. De Groot, Lomax (Aus), Frizzell, Fainga’anuku (Tonga) and Christie (Scotland) and other ABs weren’t born in NZ, some of them played for other countries at U20 level, and isn’t your new guy from the Netherlands? England welcomes players born abroad, eg Manu Tuilagi, and Feyi Waboso (born and grew up in Wales who could really do with his talent). And as for Ireland, they are arguably the least home grown of the lot, as Jamison Gibson Park, James Lowe, Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen were not only not born in Ireland, they weren’t brought up there either. This is not a criticism, as I don’t think it’s an issue to get hung up about.


If you’re referring to the number of foreign players in the Top14, ProD2, I reckon it’s a good thing. Players from upcoming second tier nations like Uruguay, Spain and Portugal are exposed to top flight competition and can play fulltime - where else would they get such a good chance to hone their skills? Argentina too is strengthened when it comes to the WC, even if not all their Top 14 players can play in every set of internationals - they still play in a lot of them. Then there the ex-internationals who get a chance to earn decent money before they retire, and enjoy thrill of French rugby. I reckon they deserve that and it shows good money can be earned from rugby, which must help stop talented youngsters from turning to other sports.


I don’t think the Top14 should be charged with making rugby financially unsustainable. I don’t think its existence was the reason Wasps, London Irish and Worcester Warriors went bust. Covid, the English system and the clubs themselves were to blame. I don’t think the Top 14 is the threat you think it is to other nations - the Top 14 and Pro D2 may be large and wealthy, but they’re not infinitely large mopping up all the top players from across the world, they have to obey strictly enforced rules about a compulsory number of Jiff players and a salary cap, which if you count the special allowances for marquee players etc, is comparable in size to the English one. That’s not to say some of the French clubs aren’t very rich, have excellent facilities etc., it’s just they can’t spend all their money on players wages.

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