OPINION: Junior Boks the biggest losers after Gqeberha double-header festival
· Citizen
The Junior Springboks have been left to count the cost of pointless non-Tests, after an injury to Zekhethelo Siyaya and a red card to Yaqeen Ahmed have put their respective Junior World Championship campaigns in jeopardy.
Utility backs Siyaya and Ahmed turned out for the SA A team against Zimbabwe in Gqeberha on Saturday, and the former went off with concussion after an accidental boot to the face from a teammate, while the latter picked up a yellow card that was upgraded to red after a dangerous tackle on a player in the air.
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Depending on the severity of Siyaya’s HIA, he will almost definitely miss the Junior Boks’ opening match of the Junior World Championship in Georgia this coming Saturday, while Ahmed will have to wait to see what sort of sanction he will receive and how many matches he will miss.
It is a major blow to the Junior Boks’ defence of the title they won in Italy last year, as both players are incredibly versatile and feature across a number of positions in the backline.
Norton and Moyo availability
On top of that the side could lose captain Riley Norton and flyhalf Vusi Moyo, who have both been selected in the Springboks’ Nations Championship squad, which kicks off in two weeks’ time.
It has still not been confirmed if Norton and Moyo are now out of the Junior Bok squad for the world champs, or if they will still represent them and then join up with the Boks later on.
That announcement will be made before the team departs for Georgia on Monday.
In all, it was a costly weekend for the Junior Boks. Fortunately, a number of other young players destined to feature at the Junior World Championship who featured at the weekend appear to have come through the matches unscathed.
Luan Giliomee, Markus Muller, Siphosethu Mnebelele, Oliver Reid and Liam van Wyk were the other Junior Bok players to feature for the SA A team.
Junior Springbok coach Kevin Foote would likely have been pulling his hair out, if he had any, watching the action in Gqeberha.