A swollen ankle, and a matchday squad rewritten
A swollen ankle. That is where it started.
Anton Segner will not play at Ellis Park this afternoon. The New Zealand flanker was pulled from the matchday squad just hours before kick-off in the first Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry between the Springboks and the All Blacks. The diagnosis from the New Zealand union caught everyone off guard: acute inflammatory arthritis. No return date has been set.
Segner, 25, born in Germany, had won two caps. One off the bench against Italy in the Nations Championship, then another a week later against Ireland. His third will have to wait.
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Simon Parker inherits the No 19 shirt at short notice
The replacement was not hard to find. Simon Parker steps onto the bench. He arrives off tour matches against the Stormers and the Bulls, and is in line for his ninth cap.
He completes a forward-heavy bench of Peter Lakai, Fletcher Newell, George Bower and Asafo Aumua. Behind them, Kyle Preston, Anton Lienert-Brown and Leroy Carter cover the back line. The rest of the XV stays as it was.
Damian McKenzie starts at full-back. Will Jordan and Josh Moorby take the wings, Jordie Barrett and Quinn Tupaea the midfield. Ruben Love is at fly-half, Cam Roigard at scrum-half. Ardie Savea captains from No 8, with Luke Jacobson and Tupou Vaa’i alongside him. Fabian Holland and Josh Lord are the lock pairing. Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor and Ethan de Groot pack down in the front row.
Altitude, a Springbok pack, and one fewer loose forward
Kick-off is 17:10 local time at Ellis Park. Matthew Carley takes the whistle. Karl Dickson and Nika Amashukeli run the touchlines, with Mike Adamson on the video review.
Losing a rotation flanker before a trip to altitude in Johannesburg is never welcome. Against a South African pack that lives for exactly this sort of afternoon, it matters more than the team sheet suggests.
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