The nature of rugby, with its manic physical intensity and brutal, confrontational demands means that rugby teams are rarely, if ever at full strength.
The Bulls played the United Rugby Championship (URC) semi-final last weekend without Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Marcell Coetzee. And during the match they lost the influential Willie le Roux to concussion.
The Boks won Rugby World Cup 2023 without Lukhanyo Am, Lood de Jager and Malcolm Marx, while Bongi Mbonambi was hobbled in the third minute of the final.
Injuries have always been a factor in rugby. In the modern game, however, with more and more rugby, played at an increasingly higher speed and physicality, injuries are more ubiquitous.
Kurt-Lee Arendse is one of the RWC 2023 winners who is currently injured. (Photo: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images)
Shorn of talent
The blight of injuries has hit Ireland hard.
The Six Nations champions and second-ranked team in the world arrive in South Africa next week, for a two-Test series against the world champions shorn of some supreme players.
Coach Andy Farrell named his 35-man touring party on Tuesday, stacked with talent, experience and sprinkled with some new faces. But the real story of the squad was about who was not coming.
Top of that list is scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park. The brilliant halfback who has consistently rivalled France’s Antoine Dupont in terms of his influence and impact on a game, will not make the tour.
Gibson-Park sustained a hamstring injury during Leinster’s 25-20 defeat against the Bulls in the URC semi-final at Loftus last weekend. It’s a massive setback for Ireland, regardless of how they spin it.
Antoine Dupont of Stade Toulousain is tackled by Jamison Gibson-Park of Leinster. Gibson-Park will miss Ireland’s tour to South Africa. (Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Read more in Daily Maverick: The Bulls’ rise to URC favourites underscores the growing depth in SA rugby
Gibson-Park is the team’s metronome. He sets the tempo by choosing when to keep it tight, when to go wide and when to snipe or kick. If that sounds like the job description of any international scrumhalf — it is – but few do it so well and with so few err
…. to be continued
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