It has been confirmed from the Bok-camp that winger J P Pietersen and substitute Lock Andries Bekker has sustained such serious injuries in the match between the Bokke & Wallabies, that they will both immediately return to SA.

J P Pietersen has injured a hamstring, forcing his retirement from the rest of the Tri-Nations Tour, down under. As a starting-fifteen right winger, this creates a bit of a quandry… who shall replace him in the starting line-up ?

The logical choice would be to play the regular replacement winger, Odwa Ndungane, in the No 14 jersey, but one never knows what Peter de Villiers and Dick Muir will do next…….. so we might see Frans Steyn there or we might see Jacue Fourie moving to right wing and Adi Jacobs coming in at outside centre. There is even the remote possibility of playing Jean de Villiers at No 14, with three possible choices of replacement inside centre (Frans Steyn, Adi Jacobs or Wynand Olivier). On top of that, some people seem to suggest that Wynand Olivier could do the ambulance job at No 14 as well.

Personally, I would go with the specialist winger option, Odwa Ndungane. Why else was there any need to take him on tour ?

The situation around  Andries Bekker  is somewhat different. Whilst Andries Bekker clearly injured his left shoulder during the last few minutes of yesterday’s match, we are now getting mixed messages that Andries Bekker is suddenly suffering from knee ailments.

Danie Rossouw would be the logical choice to replace Andries Bekker on the bench and it seems that he has sufficiently recovered from his own hamstring tweak to be fit for coming Saturday’s match.

The Bokke management have indicated that they will not replace the two injured players in the touring party with substitutes from South Africa.

Details are still sketchy regarding the exact extent of the injuries of these two returning players or how long they might be sidelined.