Covid: Is Boks, Georgia Test now in doubt?
With the Bok squad in isolation and a team announcement cancelled there are fresh concerns about playing Test rugby at this time.
Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick (left) and Siya Kolisi (captain) talk during a training session on Sunday. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
The Springboks’ team announcement for the second Test against Georgia on Friday, which was scheduled for 1pm on Tuesday, has been postponed.
Bok boss Jacques Nienaber was due to name his lineup for the match but following the discovery that lock Lood de Jager tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, the announcement was called off minutes prior to the engagement.
Questions are now being asked about the Boks playing Test rugby at a time when South Africa is in its third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The two Tests against Georgia and two against the British and Irish Lions will take place in Gauteng, the epicentre of the latest coronavirus wave.
Georgia, in light of the Boks cancelling their team announcement, also called off their media activities for the day on Tuesday, ensuring this Friday’s second Test between the nations is very much in doubt.
The Bok team suspended their training programme for Monday and placed the entire squad in preventative isolation prior to further PCR testing and a review by the Medical Advisory Group (MAG).
The entire team and management had PCR tests on Tuesday morning, and will remain in isolation until the results and subsequent recommendations are received from MAG.
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A team update will be issued in due course, read a statement by SA Rugby.
The Boks, who have been in camp for several weeks – mainly in Bloemfontein – have already had to deal with positive Covid results. Just last week, Sbu Nkosi and Vincent Koch returned positive tests, while Herschel Jantjies’ positive result was later deemed to be a “false” positive and the scrumhalf was named on the bench for the first Test against Georgia, which the Boks won last Friday.
Nkosi and Koch were not considered for the match, along with the majority of players who joined the Bok squad late, coming in from the UK and France.
Meanwhile, according to the SuperSport website, this weekend’s tour match between the British and Irish Lions and the Bulls in Pretoria is apparently in doubt because of several cases of Covid in the home team’s camp.
The touring Lions, who opened their tour of South Africa with a match against the local Lions last Saturday, are scheduled to play the Sharks, at Ellis Park, on Wednesday.
