Thursday’s rugby news has Kane Douglas shrugging off eye-gouge incident, Dan Crowley calling to end the Pooper, NRC goes blue for prostate cancer and Springboks squad announced for Australasia tour.
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Douglas Shrugs it off
Wallaby lock Kane Douglas has shrugged off the controversial incident of Owen Franks appearing to eye-gouge him in last Saturday’s test match.
“I probably didn’t realise how bad it looked until after the game (when watching it on TV),” Douglas said.
“My eyes were fine and it all happened so quickly I was on to the next thing in the game.
“I didn’t think of it like that.
“It was an All Black trying to stop me driving through the maul, arms everywhere and everything happening in a few seconds.
“I’ve got no issue at all but obviously you want to be protecting the eyes of players.’’
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End the Pooper
Former Wallaby Dan Crowley has called to end the combination of Michael Hooper and David Pocock in the backrow.
“Making the difficult decisions is part of being a top coach,” Crowley said.
“I think everyone saw David Pocock and Michael Hooper playing in the backrow together as a one-off, not part of the ongoing armoury.
“It worked well in the circumstances of the World Cup but you can’t play two openside flankers because of the limitations it puts on the backrow.
“Unfortunately, you are talking about two crackerjack players.
“Hooper has great abilities and was the only bloke who backed up the Will Genia break (in Wellington last weekend) but he’s not as effective as Pocock at the breakdown and that’s the decision right there.”
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NRC Goes Blue
NRC players will be wearing blue socks this week to raise awareness for prostate cancer.
Sydney Rays hooker Damien Fitzpatrick has a personal connection after his father was diagnosed with the disease.
“Prostate cancer is a very real threat to every male at some point in life,” he said.
“My Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer about five years ago after a regular examination and at the time, doctors thought they had caught it early enough.”
“But a few months post-operation we discovered that the cancer had spread, even though they believed it had been detected very early on. Dad has since undergone radiotherapy and thankfully has been in remission since.
“If it wasn’t for Dad’s routine check-up, who knows how this story may have ended.
“Prostate cancer is incredibly fast spreading so I highly recommend all men in the age bracket to take it seriously and organise regular check ups.”
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Springboks Squad
The Springboks have called up Francois Hougaard and Lwazi Mvovo to their squad for South Africa’s tour of Australia and New Zealand this September.
Winger Ruan Combrinck was dropped from the squad after suffering a leg injury against Argentina.
Flyhalf Elton Jantjies is also under an injury cloud with a groin injury.
Squad: Lourens Adriaanse, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Jaco Kriel, Francois Louw, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Oupa Mohoje, Franco Mostert, Tendai Mtawarira, Trevor Nyakane, Adriaan Strauss (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Warren Whiteley, Damian de Allende, Johan Goosen, Bryan Habana, Francois Hougaard, Elton Jantjies, Juan de Jongh, Faf de Klerk, Jesse Kriel, Lionel Mapoe, Lwazi Mvovo, Rudy Paige, Morne Steyn
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