South Africa’s Fourie du Preez suffered a knee ligament injury last week while training with Japanese club Suntory Goliath.
Agencies/Johannesburg
The pre-Rugby World Cup injury woes of South Africa increased yesterday with star scrum-half Fourie du Preez sidelined for between four and eight weeks.
A Johannesburg media briefing was told that the 2007 World Cup-winner suffered a knee ligament injury last week while training with Japanese club Suntory Goliath. South Africa begin a five-match countdown to the World Cup in England during September and October by playing a World XV on July 11 in Cape Town.
Rugby Championship fixtures away to Australia (July 18) and at home to New Zealand (July 25) and Argentina (August 8) follow. An away Test against Argentina on August 15 concludes the Springboks’ match preparations ahead of a quadrennial tournament they have won twice.
Du Preez, 33, has confined his non-Test career to Japan since the 2011 World Cup, not playing in the annual Super Rugby southern hemisphere championship. But he remains a favourite of coach Heyneke Meyer, receiving international call-ups in the past two seasons.
South Africa will choose three World Cup scrum-halves with Du Preez a certainty if fit and Ruan Pienaar, Cobus Reinach, Faf de Klerk and Rudy Paige contesting the other slots. The Springboks are in Pool B at the World Cup with Japan, Samoa, Scotland and the United States.
Flanker Treviranus to lead Samoa’s World Cup campaign
Flanker Ofisa Treviranus was named Samoa captain for the rugby World Cup in September and his first match as skipper will be next week’s one off test against world champions New Zealand.
The 31-year-old forward, who plays his club rugby in England with London Irish, said he had just been focusing on making the starting lineup for the July 8 fixture, the first ever visit to Apia by the All Blacks.
“It’s always an honour to represent Samoa, but it is something very special when you are asked to captain your team,” Treviranus said in a statement.
Treviranus, a powerful ball carrier known for his big defensive tackles, previously skippered the Samoa side that won the Sevens World Series in 2010. He played for Irish province Connacht before moving to England with the Exiles after the 2011 rugby World Cup.
Samoa coach Stephen Betham said Treviranus was the obvious choice to lead the side, who have twice made the World Cup quarter-finals. “Ofisa is a strong force in the Manu Samoa environment and he has the respect of the players on and off the field,” Betham said.
Queensland drop Cherry-Evans for Origin decider
Queensland yesterday dropped Daly Cherry-Evans from next month’s deciding State of Origin game, with the star halfback paying the price for Cooper Cronk’s return from injury.
The Maroons go into the third and final game of the series against New South Wales in Brisbane on July 8 with the versatile Michael Morgan retaining his bench utility role ahead of Cherry-Evans.
“(It was a) tough decision obviously, we feel that at this point, being a decider, Michael was the best option,” Queensland coach Mal Meninga said.
“He plays more positions simple as that. Billy (Slater) is out, so we are down an outside back, Michael can fill in at fullback there and put Greg (Inglis) back to the centres. It was a tough decision and not something we like to make, but think we have made the right one.”
Queensland won this year’s first Origin game 11-10 in Sydney, with New South Wales triumphing 26-18 in the second in Melbourne. The NSW Blues broke Queensland’s eight-year Origin stranglehold with a 2-1 series win last season and are keen to retain the trophy.
NSW will announce their team today, with hooker Robbie Farah in doubt with a broken hand sustained in weekend play.
