Injury cloud for Boks
Victor Matfield and Marcell Coetzee are both doubtful for the Springboks' clash with the All Blacks at Ellis Park.
Both players left the field with injuries in the dramatic 24-20 defeat to the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday with Matfield hurting his hamstring and Coetzee taking a knock to the knee.
Apart from the injuriVictor Matfield and Marcell Coetzee are both doubtful for the Springboks' clash with the All Blacks at Ellis Park.es to Matfield and Coetzee, Jannie du Plessis had to undergo a head injury assessment in the 14th minute and was subsequently taken off the field in the 48th minute, while Francois Louw got a nasty cut to his mouth in the 28th minute.
All the injured players will be re-assessed by the Springbok medical team in Johannesburg on Monday, but both Matfield and Coetzee will be in a race against time to be fit to face New Zealand next week.
Despite initial fears that Coetzee's injury would rule him out of the World Cup, the flank tweeted that it was not that serious shortly after the match.
Coach Heyneke Meyer said that with an already lengthy injury list these setbacks will make things even tougher on his side.
"There were lots of hard knocks out there and all these injuries will certainly test our depth, but the guys next in line will have to show what they’ve got and stand up next week," said Meyer.
"We’re already without experienced players such as Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez, Duane Vermeulen and Willem Alberts, but we always wanted to use the Tests in the Rugby Championship to see what depth we have and there will probably be more changes next week," he added.
Meyer refused to question the decisions to award a penalty and the subsequent try against the Boks at the death, but admitted that it was heartbreaking to lose such a close match.
"It’s heart-breaking to lose like that for a second year running in Australia, but we simply can’t dwell on it and have to take some harsh but valuable lessons to heart. .
"Losing our captain early was tough and we finished the match with eight players who were playing in their 10th Test or fewer than that. It’s not an excuse – we will all be better for it and we will have to look at ways to overcome this.
"Although we played some brilliant rugby at times, uur execution also let us down and I think we left two tries out there, right at the end of the first half and midway through the second," he said.
Meyer admitted that a lack of experience cost his team, but said that there were some valuable lessons learned.
"We probably lacked some experience at the end when we needed to close the match, but we’ve said from the word go this season that we wanted to use our five matches in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup to get ready.
"We’ll never accept defeat but I believe that we will take a lot from this match against a very experienced Wallaby team. Next week we have the All Blacks waiting in Johannesburg and we have to rise to the challenge.
The Springboks will travel back to South Africa in two groups and will only have a light flush-out session on Monday before hitting the training ground on Tuesday. The team to face New Zealand next weekend at Emirates Airline Park will be named on Wednesday.
