Race for Bok No 2 jersey wide open

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.