Is Cyle on the Brink of a return to Tigers line-up?
BORTHWICK HOPEFUL SPRINGBOKS FORWARD WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE AFTER HIS KNEE INJURY
STEVE Borthwick is hopeful of having powerful South African forward Cyle Brink available for Leicester Tigers soon after suffering a knee injury.
The versatile back rower featured in ten of Tigers’ first 14 games of the season before suffering the blow just 13 minutes into the defeat to Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park.
At half-time in the round 14 match, loosehead prop Nephi Leatigaga became the second knee injury victim and was replaced by Luan de Bruin.
Both missed out on the win over Newcastle Falcons and ahead of Saturday’s visit of Connaught to the Mattioli Woods Welford Road, Tigers head coach Borthwick provided an update on the players.
“Both have seen specialists,” he said. “Cyle, in particular, hopefully we will have him back available to us soon.
“Neph is looking like it’s potentially a little bit longer. There will be more investigations with the specialist. But we will assess that in due course.”
The 26-12 win over Newcastle Falcons was the seventh match missed by Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo.
He pulled up just eight minutes into the win over Worcester Warriors in early February and had got tantalisingly close to a return to action before suffering a recurrence of his leg muscle injury.
“He got back on the field and was training with the team, still wasn’t quite right and had to back off a little bit,” said Borthwick.
“But he’s back out running and he looks in a very good place. He’s progressing well.
“He’s one of those guys, you can trust him to make good decisions, working with our strength and medical conditioning teams.” Tigers have operated without hooker Julian Montoya for five games after he hit the ground running with three tries in his first four games. It was reported the Argentina international had suffered a “damaged tendon in his hamstring and has had surgery”. Borthwick later revealed Montoya had “undergone a procedure”. Coupled with the departure of
Shalva Mamukashvili, Tigers have been relying on the form and fitness of Tom Youngs, Charlie Clare and Jake Kerr.
But they have added to their hooker ranks with the signing of former Sale Sharks forward Nic Dolly from Coventry Rugby.
The 21-year-old, who scored a try in each of Coventry’s opening three rounds of Greene King IPA Championship games before joining Tigers, was immediately registered for European action.
“He’s been at Coventry and each time I’ve spoken to him, his hunger to step forward as a player shines through,” said Borthwick.
“He’s eager to learn. Watching him today with Tom Youngs, he’s eager to learn off a player of his level of experience. That’s an immense credit to Nic.
“He’s a player that wants to do well, is eager to learn, he’s got an attitude to work hard, there’s great potential for growth in him.”
Nadolo is back running and he looks in a very good place. You can trust him to make good decisions
Steve Borthwick