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Warren Whiteley's career may be over - reports

Whiteley in 2017

The career of former Springbok skipper Warren Whiteley may be over at 32 – according to reports.

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SA media outlets are reporting that Whiteley’s knee – which plagued him in 2019 – is set to rule him out of Super Rugby in 2020.

Whitely underwent knee surgery earlier this year. According to Netwerk 24, Lions Rugby Company Chairperson Altmann Allers told them that he was unlikely to play in next year’s southern hemisphere competition.

With Whitely having not played since May, many fear such a lengthy term on the sidelines could spell the end of the career for the former Springbok backrow.

His most recent injury problems started when he tore his pectoral muscle during the Lions 17-19 loss to the Stormers in Cape Town in February.

Whiteley returned to lead the Lions to a 23-17 victory over the Chiefs in Hamilton in April, but he then injured his knee and missed the 10-36 defeat against the Crusaders.

Whiteley made a return to the playing field once again when he led the Johannesburg based side to a 29-28 victory against the Waratahs in May.

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He did not manage to recover from the knee injury and the severe pain kept him out of the Lions next two games against the Highlanders and the Sharks. To make matters worse for Whiteley he also suffered a bout of kidney stones during the period.

The Rugby Pod gave their reaction to the news that Saracens will not appeal the 35 point deduction that they were given in light of breaching salary cap regulations.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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