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New Zealand hooker George Bell has returned home from South Africa after suffering a calf strain while training in Cape Town, the All Blacks announced yesterday.
Bell is expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks, ruling him out of the All Blacks tour of South Africa, which ends on September 12.
“We are all gutted for George, to be ruled out of the tour so early,” head coach Dave Rennie said.
“He’s had a frustrating past few months with injury so it’s a real blow for him to have injured his calf again.
“We look forward to seeing him return (for his club) and put himself in a position to push for All Blacks selection later in the year.”
Taranaki and Blues hooker Bradley Slater, 27, has been called up to replace Bell, and is expected to arrive in South Africa on Wednesday.
New Zealand launch an eight-match tour, which includes four Tests, on Friday against the Stormers in Cape Town.
Meanwhile, All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan believes his side will have a “big crack” at the franchises before the test series and is preparing his forwards to take on the South African scrums head on.
Ryan, in a call with New Zealand media, spoke about the excitement now that the team are in South Africa, preparing for Friday night’s Greatest Rivalry Tour opener against the DHL Stormers at Cape Town Stadium.
But knowing the scrumming power of the Stormers, even though they have players at the Springboks, Ryan knows the only way to try and counter the strong South African setpiece is to take it head-on.
“Well, it is (a strength). And you respect it, but you’ve got to take it head on,” Ryan said.
“You know, you’ve got to do your job to enhance the jersey every day and try to be the best in the world every day. And when you come over here, I guess, especially, the depth of your question there around as a forwards coach, well, there’s nothing better to test yourself against the Springboks and South Africa. I’m really excited by it. I know that we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us, but I’m sure that over the next five to six weeks, we will grow together.” The forwards coach believes that his side need to get a lot out of the clash, and start working towards their final product when they face the Boks in two weeks’ time to be ready to try and take down the World Champions.
“I think it’s really important we start with a bit of confidence and we get into our game with 10 guys involved that have come into the group. A few debutantes that have never been into the environment before so making sure we set them up is really important firstly.
“And then we want to play some footy and Renz (Head coach Dave Rennie) has been pretty clear that we really want to give a crack in these few games. That’s what the tour is about. So we’ve been hidden from that and that’s the opportunity. But I think we’re starting well getting to know the Stormers which we’ve done some good preparation on and preparing accordingly for each game” – SuperSport
Online Reporter