Junior Boks lose Small-Smith

June 18, 2012
Posted by Morné

The Junior Boks announced on Monday that William Small-Smith has suffered a knee injury and has been ruled out of Friday’s IRB Junior World Championship 2012 against New Zealand.

The midfielder injured ligaments in his side’s 35-3 semi-final win over Argentina on Sunday and will be out of action for at least three months. His place in the squad will be taken by Dean Hammond from DHL Western Province.

Hammond was in South Africa’s original squad for the tournament, but suffered a hamstring injury in their final warm-up match and was ruled out because of that.

“We are again in a very fortunate position that we can bring in a player that has been with the team for a long time and can slot in immediately,” head coach Dawie Theron said.

“We feel for William, as he was a real stand-out and proved a very inspirational leader, but injuries are part of rugby and we can only wish him a speedy recovery.”

The other injury concern is Paul Jordaan, who has a hamstring strain. Theron said a final decision on him would be made later in the week following a fitness test.

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to MySpace

Tags: , ,

5 Comments

  1. Pokkel_Sharks Pokkel says:
    June 18th, 2012 at 4:00 pm Reply to this comment

    It’s a real pity about both injuries. They’ve both looked great.

  2. Mug Punters Organisation of South Africa Kevin_rack says:
    June 19th, 2012 at 12:14 am Reply to this comment

    FECK!!! A leader and playmaker. FECK

  3. bok_in_oz bryce_in_oz says:
    June 19th, 2012 at 2:25 am Reply to this comment

    Cannot see the Bok back-line posing much of a threat without Smith and Jordaan…

  4. grantwp grantwp says:
    June 19th, 2012 at 10:17 am Reply to this comment

    Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 2:25 am: I still think they’ll be able to pose a threat, just not as great given the fact that they have lost 3 outside centres in the space of 1 week.

    Rhule is actually an outside centre so maybe he could thrive next to Jan Serfontein.

    For me, this backline works with Pollard at 10 and Serfontein at 12. Small-Smith is a big blow though

  5. bok_in_oz bryce_in_oz says:
    June 19th, 2012 at 11:11 am Reply to this comment

    Reply to grantwp @ 10:17 am:

    Definitely… Rhule runs good angles and has a great turn of pace… but yeah… the on-field presence of Small-Smith and Jordaan in every facet of play…

Switch to our mobile site