Star Springbok lock Victor Matfield and winger Breyton Paulse cut lonely figures at Monday afternoon’s training session at Selborne College.
Springbok chief coach Jake White announced on Monday that Matfield had been forced to withdraw from the side to play Uruguay in East London on Saturday at the Absa Stadium after suffering a groin strain.
While Matfield did not take part in the training session at all, Paulse — who is recovering from an ankle injury — was at least able to do some light training on his own.
The Uruguayans, who jetted into East London on Monday afternoon, also had their fair share of bad luck when their kit, transported by road from Cape Town, arrived late.
The South Americans planned a training session at Police Park on Monday night, but were forced to cancel the session.
”If the truck arrives at a reasonable time, we will have a late training at Mercedes-Benz Park,” liaison officer Dawid Ruiters said.
According to Ruiters, the Uruguayans intend staging a practice session on Tuesday morning at Police Park. On Tuesday evening, a non-contact session will be held against members of the local police team, also at Police Park.
It was clear from Monday’s 90-minute session that White is placing a lot of emphasis on effective rucking.
After light warm-up sessions with and without the ball, a considerable amount of time was spent on driving defenders away at the points of breakdown and clearing the ball quickly.
Flanks Danie Rossouw and Jacques Cronje were repeatedly used in driving the ball up the inside channel, while flyhalf Jaco van der Westhuyzen mixed his passes well.
Just how serious the Springboks are ahead of Saturday’s Test was underlined by the fact that everything was done at high intensity, with White quick to fine-tune where he thought moves could improve.
The Springboks will stage another field training session on Tuesday morning at the same venue and follow this up with another session at the Absa Stadium at 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.
All sessions will be open to the public. — Sapa