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Frans Steyn, Adrian Jacobs, Schalk Burger, Fourie du Preez, Conrad Jantjes, Jean de Villiers, Andries Bekker - a list that reads like a who’s who of South Africa’s top players, but it’s also a list of some of the men who won’t be playing Super 14 rugby this weekend.
Jacobs was back in training for the Sharks on Monday evening, but if Bok coach Peter de Villiers sees that as a sign that his favourite player will be ready to face the British and Irish Lions next month, he should temper his enthusiasm.
There were always two ways to treat Jacobs’s shoulder tear - one was to send him for a shoulder operation, which would put him out for three months, the second was to take a gamble on a course of treatment that would enable him to play through the injury.
The second option was considered risky, and although that is the one the Sharks have taken, perhaps understandably given their current circumstances, there is no guarantee he will even get through this week’s training so that he can face the Waratahs.
What makes a gamble on Jacobs understandable from a Sharks viewpoint is the injury to Frans Steyn. The flyhalf-cum-centre has been ruled out for six to eight weeks with a knee injury not dissimilar to the one that sidelined Ruan Pienaar for much of the Super 14 season.
What of the other Boks mentioned in the list above? Jantjes is definitely out, probably for the entire year, after breaking his leg playing for the Stormers against the Chiefs last week. De Villiers is going to have to find a new fullback, a position Steyn might well have been in contention for before his injury.
Du Preez has a calf injury and the word from Pretoria is that he will only be out this week, if that. Bok fans everywhere will be hoping that prognosis is correct, for outside of Jaque Fourie, Du Preez has been the most consistent South African performer in the Super 14 this year.
It is the Stormers who are suffering most from injuries, and for them the season has for a while now been about damage limitation as week after week someone new goes down. They were hoping to have Andries Bekker back to face the Force this coming Saturday, but Stormers assistant coach Gary Gold says that is unlikely.
While Bekker has made a good recovery from his rib injury sustained against the Highlanders, he is still struggling with it. And the way rib injuries are, we should not bet too much on this changing in the immediate future. At this stage though he does look like he will be ready for the Lions -- it is just that by then he wouldn’t have played much rugby for quite a few months (the Highlanders game was his first for the Stormers in two months).
Stormers captain Jean de Villiers has been out for three weeks now, and at a push may be ready to face the Cheetahs in the last Super 14 match of the season. His Bok coaching namesake will be praying he gets through the game unscathed if he does, for with Jacobs possibly out, De Villiers becomes even more important if there is to be continuity from last season.
And then there is Schalk Burger. Long one of the most important Bok players, the flanker has battled for form this season before regaining some of it in leading his team to victory in the Highlanders match. He limped off after half an hour of the Chiefs match with a calf injury though, and it is serious enough to rule him out of the remainder of the season.
Luke Watson is taking over the captaincy reins this week, but the good news is that Burger is expected to be fully recovered in time for the Lions series.
Any notion of there being good news should be tempered though with the knowledge that there are still two weeks left in the league stages, and then a probable playoff and even a final for some of the top Boks. At a stage of the season when wear and tear is having an effect, the Bok management would be right if they have broken out in a cold sweat.
