On Thursday, the Springboks confirmed that hooker Malcolm Marx has been dominated out of the rest of the Rugby World Cup in France with a long-term knee harm.
BOMBSHELL: Springbok star Marx out of World Cup – confirmed
It’s a serious blow for the team, however simply as notable was the assertion that with “the luxury of an enlarged 33-man squad in France”, the Springboks really feel there’s “sufficient cover at hooker within the squad”.
As a consequence, Marx won’t get replaced in the squad at this stage, however Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber did state: “We’ll assess our needs for the rest of the tournament and confirm who we are calling up as an additional player later this week.”
With the Boks indicating they aren’t inclined to call up a specialist hooker as a alternative, there’s a robust feeling that Pollard is the probably candidate to then be introduced into the squad.
Notably, on Thursday afternoon, Pollard’s membership Leicester Tigers posted a picture of Pollard to X with a waving hand emoji.
Perhaps not an excessive amount of must be learn into this, though there have been many social media customers who suspected this is perhaps a sign that the English membership was making ready to wave goodbye to the flyhalf.
What may very well be extra notable is the truth that Pollard was included on the Leicester bench as he returns to matchday motion for Friday’s Premiership Rugby Cup away sport towards Sale Sharks at Salford Stadium.
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With a hooker not anticipated to be referred to as up, this implies the Springboks are comfy with Fourie serving because the back-up to Mbonambi for the rest of the event regardless of having predominantly performed at flank for the previous few years of his profession.
The expectation might have been for the Springboks to call up Joseph Dweba, a specialist hooker on the standby checklist, however this apparently received’t be the case.
Will Springboks recall Pollard?
Instead, the Springboks can now think about calling up one other participant on the “ready to go list” – Jean-Luc du Preez, Joseph Dweba, Handre Pollard, Lukhanyo Am and Thomas du Toit – and there’s a superb probability that Pollard may very well be introduced again into the team.
Now again to full health, Pollard has been in coaching together with his English membership Leicester Tigers after leaving the Springbok camp, and his expertise may very well be seen as a giant profit for the Springboks.
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Boks bid farewell to Marx
“First and foremost, we are extremely disappointed for Malcolm, and we wish him all the best in his recovery,” mentioned Nienaber.
“He’s been working very hard to be in the best form possible for the tournament, and it’s tragic that his campaign has ended this way. As a team we will remain in contact with him, as we do with all injured players like Lukhanyo (Am), Handre (Pollard) and Lood (de Jager) and support him as much as we can through the recovery process.”
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