The Leopards’ chances of repeating their first-leg victory over the Pumas have received a serious blow, with a veritable horde of first-team players ruled out for extended periods.
Prop Stoof Bezuidenhout is the most serious, with the prop requiring surgery to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament – an injury that generally implies a year on the sidelines. Fellow front-ranker BG Uys is also out with a shoulder injury, as is Lions-bound scrumhalf Whestley Moolman. Other forwards struck down by the injury curse include Stoffel Duvenage and Roan van Heerden, while utility back Hennie Skorbinski has broken his thumb.
Centre Morne Hanekom has already been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with a broken hand suffered against Western Province a few weeks back.
The Leoaprds have been forced to borrow Lions utility forward Dries van Schalkwyk, who will appear on the bench for them this week.
Leopards: George Tossel; Hoffman Maritz; Charl Weideman, Joubert Engelbrecht (capt), Jovan Bowles; Wesley Dunlop, Johann Laker; Robert Kruger, MB Lusaseni, Philip de Wet, Brad Mockford, Brendon Snyman, John Roy Jenkinson, Gavin Williamson, Jean Rossouw. Reserves: Marius Fourie, Snoepie Coetzee, Bêrend Botha, Spanner Pretorius, Dries van Schalkwyk, Liam Slatem, Clatyon Durand.
And a compound fracture in the headline
@rhineshark (Comment 1) : oh shit. This was written at 4am
@robdylan (Comment 2) : Is Hoffman Maritz ruled out for the rest of the campaign or is he starting at wing this weekend?
@war1 (Comment 3) : starting at wing, man… read the blerrie artikel
@robdylan (Comment 4) : sneaky
You gotta love some of them wacky-ass names; Stoof, Snoepie, Spanner, Clayton…
@Culling Song (Comment 6) :
You can also add Snoepie and Wesley to that list.
@Pokkel (Comment 7) : Tossel!!! Bwahahahaha
I picked Leopards on LMS this week. I’ll probably be dead before I go to sleep on Friday