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Springboks awaiting news on Whiteley injury

South Africa captain Warren Whiteley

South Africa captain Warren Whiteley is set to discover on Monday how long he will be sidelined after suffering a torn groin that kept him out of Saturday’s 35-12 drubbing of France.

Eben Etzebeth led the Springboks to a resounding victory over Les Bleus at Ellis Park which sealed a 3-0 series whitewash in the absence of Whiteley, who was ruled out on the day of the game.

Lions number eight Whiteley was sent for a scan, but must now wait to learn the extent of the damage just two months before the Rugby Championship gets under way.

“Warren has been struggling with a bit of a groin strain for a while. We decided to give him as much time as possible to be declared fit, but then he landed awkwardly in a line-out session,” said South Africa head coach Allister Coetzee.

“We sent him for a scan and did a little sonar that revealed that has a little tear. We didn’t want to risk him. Sometimes you use a medical team to patch up a player and make it possible for him to get through a game, but we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

“The team consists of 31 players and the whole week Warren did not train with the team, so it wasn’t a big disruption for us.

“I was proud of the way the team coped under pressure. Eben was vice-captain so everyone knew who would take over when Warren is out. We don’t know at this stage how serious the injury to Warren is.

“He will be assessed on Monday and a decision will be taken together with the medical team of the Lions.”

Etzebeth was among the four try-scorers in another encouraging display from the Springboks and the towering lock thrived on the opportunity to lead his country for the first time.

“Welcome to the best day of my life,” he said.

“The last 24 hours have been unbelievable and very exciting for me. Warren was outstanding in the last few weeks, so it was difficult taking over from him, but I had leaders like Siya [Kolisi] and Beast [Tendai Mtawarira] backing me. Everyone is a captain in his own position, so it was easy for me to take over.

“There has been great preparation this year and that has built up a feeling of brotherhood in the team. I would say that the last three weeks have been the best three weeks with the Springboks for me.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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