Boks’ bruising injury blues at rugby world cup

The bruising world cup rugby encounter between South Africa and Wales has left the world champions with more than their fair share of injury worries.

They might have scraped a narrow win, but two South Africans left the field early and are unlikely to make the Boks’ next match.

And on top of that, veteran lock Bakkies Botha has hardly been seen in New Zealand.

The South African team doctor, Craig Roberts, told a news conference: “Bakkies, as I’m sure you’ve seen, has an Achilles tendon problem. He hasn’t responded as well as we had anticipated. We are still working on it. We haven’t made a decision on how we’re going to continue with him at this stage.”

Midfielder Jean de Villiers is nursing a rib injury that doctors reckon will keep him out of action for ten days and another second row stalwart Victor Matfield is looking at a similar time laid up with a hamstring problem.

In pool D, Samoa take on Namibia in Rotorua on Wednesday. South Africa’s encounter with Fiji scheduled for Saturday is unlikely to be as challenging as the Welsh match.

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