Assistant coach Mzwandile Stick shed light on the Springboks’ team changes on the eve of the second Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series at Cape Town Stadium, reports DEVIN HERMANUS.
Stick was speaking to the media on Friday in the build-up to the clash in Cape Town, alongside skipper Siya Kolisi, who returns to lead South Africa as Rassie Erasmus’ side look to level the four-Test series 1-1.
Handré Pollard was withdrawn from the run-on side after picking up a calf issue at training, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu handed the No 10 jersey and Manie Libbok named among the replacements.
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“I’m not a medical expert, but I think it happened on Wednesday, we’re waiting for testing now,” Stick said. “I can’t really go deep and say how long he’s going to be out for, but it’s a calf.”
He also spoke to the emotion of the moment for two-time World Cup winner Pollard. “The nice thing about it – and I know it’s a sad situation – is for a leader like him to be honest about how he feels, to lose his pride in the sense of saying, ‘I’m not feeling well’.
“At that moment in the training session, I could see he was going through tears,” Stick added. “I know it’s a sad thing to lose a player like Handré. He’s been in good shape, he’s been working very hard, he’s been positive and trying to assist the guys.
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“So I feel for him and hopefully he can recover quickly,” Stick said.
Turning to the wing changes, Stick explained why Cheslin Kolbe, who wasn’t named in the original match 23 on Monday, returns in place of Kurt-Lee Arendse.
“If you remember, last weekend [in the defeat to the All Blacks at Ellis Park] both of those players came off injured. So we had to make way because, remember, we selected the team on Sunday as a coaching staff,” he explained.
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“At that time, with the medical report that we had as a coaching staff, I’ll be honest with you, we didn’t have a final report about Cheslin Kolbe. We’ve got a policy in place that if a player can train full out on Monday, there’s no reason not to select him if you want to select him.
“So that’s why, if you see, we announced Kurt-Lee at that time, but Cheslin Kolbe finished his training session on Monday, so that’s where the change came from.
“Again, I know it’s not nice for Kurt-Lee because, once again, he probably would have had the opportunity. But I think for us as the coaching staff, it was just because we didn’t get that final medical report from Cheslin Kolbe. So that’s why we had to make that change on Monday.”
Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
The post Stick on tearful Handré, ‘not nice’ KLA situation appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Assistant coach Mzwandile Stick shed light on the Springboks’ team changes on the eve of the second Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series at Cape Town Stadium.
The post Stick on tearful Handré, ‘not nice’ KLA situation appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
