Race for Bok No 2 jersey wide open
FINAL CLASH: COACH SWYS WANTS TO END ON HIGH NOTE
Springbok rugby faces a hooker crisis on the eve of the England Test series next month after the groin injury of the impressive Malcolm Marx.
Marx left the field in the eighth minute of the Lions Super Rugby game against the Hurricanes on Saturday and was due to return to South Africa yesterday.
Lions coach Swys de Bruin confirmed Marx is set to undergo scans today to determine the extent of his injury.
It will no doubt leave Bok coach Rassie Erasmus in a precarious position because there is no obvious successor for Marx who had been the most impressive Bok and the Lions player for the past two seasons.
Candidates who come to mind are the Bulls’ Adriaan Strauss, the Stormers’ Ramone Samuels and the Sharks’ Akker van der Merwe who with all due respect are great players but none in the class of Marx whose understudy last year Bongi Mbonambi will only return by the middle of June.
The name of former Bok hooker Bismarck du Plessis has also been mentioned but he hasn’t played for South Africa since the 2015 World Cup. Strauss was preferred in 2016 and Marx last year when former Bok coach Allister Coetzee was still in charge.
Erasmus has expressed his interest in involving Strauss again after the former Bok skipper retired last season but remained involved with the Bulls in Super Rugby.
De Bruin didn’t try to hide his disappointment of losing Marx this early, but he said Lions team doctor Rob Collins preferred that Marx be treated in South Africa rather than sending him for assessment in New Zealand.
“Malcolm was a big setback for us to lose him so early. He’s SA’s Player-of-the-Year, but we’ll work through this,” said De Bruin.
“So he is not a member of our tour party any longer and he will do his scans and stuff in Johannesburg. This is how doc prefers it and we will be back,” he said.
With hooker Marx returning home, it just got tougher.
The Lions might have to throw caution to the wind when they face the Highlanders in their fourth and final match of their Super Rugby away leg in Dunedin this weekend.
Having started their tour on a high note beating the Waratahs 29-0 in Sydney, they came unstuck in their next two matches by going down 27-22 to the Reds in Brisbane and 28-19 to former champions the Hurricanes in Wellington last weekend.
While they still managed to get one point out of the Reds match, having finished within five points, they walked away without a single point against the Canes having lost the encounter by a nine-point margin.
But Lions coach Swys de Bruin said they remain upbeat ahead of their final game on tour and stressed there was a lot more energy and intent against the Canes than was the case the previous week against the Reds.
“We will work hard this week as we prepare for the game against the Highlanders and we are looking at concluding the tour on a very high note,” said De Bruin.
They will however be without their biggest star in hooker Malcolm Marx who was set to return yesterday to South Africa with a groin injury picked up early in the Hurricanes clash.
While his replacement Robbie Coetzee played his part in all other departments he struggled with his lineout throws going deep too often into the swirling wind at the Westpac Stadium.
The Lions still lead the SA Conference with six wins from 11 games and on 31 points, but have seen their advantage shrink.
The Jaguares are starting to lay big claims, having won all four matches on Australasian soil and with 24 points are just seven adrift of the Lions.
The Sharks (23), the Stormers (22) and the Bulls (20) are also still in the hunt with the Sharks and the Bulls having played a game less than the other three.