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/ 4 September 2006
Australia’s coach John Connolly on Monday singled out the South African pack as the most impressive aspect of the Springboks’ revival against New Zealand in the Tri-Nations on the weekend. ”I thought it was a pretty solid performance by the Springboks,” Connolly said of Saturday’s match in Rustenburg, where the All Blacks were beaten 21-20.
Centre Jean de Villiers is in the South African team to play New Zealand in Pretoria on Saturday but the Springboks were hit with another serious injury blow on Wednesday. Loose forward Juan Smith injured a left thigh muscle in practice on Wednesday and was ruled out of Saturday’s Test.
New Zealand coach Graham Henry said on Tuesday that the rigours of playing last weekend against Australia and then travelling immediately to South Africa had led him to make 11 changes to the All Blacks team for Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against the Springboks.
The United Cricket Board (UCB), with a turnover of R247-million in 2004/05, is facing a loss of R48-million in the current financial year. Quite how the organisation got itself into this mess was to be the subject of a financial indaba in Johannesburg. The indaba has been postponed, but will take place in the near future.