The All Blacks are heading to South Africa to face the Springboks’ mighty scrum without one of their biggest weapons in that department.
Loosehead prop Ethan de Groot has been ruled out of the South African leg of the Rugby Championship with a neck injury and will be replaced in the squad by Crusaders prop George Bower.
De Groot suffered the injury in their first Rugby Championship match against Argentina in Wellington, and was replaced by Tamaiti Williams in the starting team for the second Test in Auckland.
De Groot has largely held his own against Bok tightheads since making his debut in 2021, standing his ground against the likes of Frans Malherbe and Vincent Koch.
The All Blacks went well in the scrum against Los Pumas, although there weren’t many in their first Test. However, the Springboks’ scrum is a different beast and will definitely target that set-piece in the matches in Johannesburg (August 31) and Cape Town (September 7).
Squad update as we head to South Africa 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦 pic.twitter.com/jrWpwaLkax
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) August 23, 2024
The Springboks have been boosted by the return of experienced loosehead Steven Kitshoff for the remainder of the Rugby Championship, but it will be interesting to see if he features after only recently returning to action for Western Province in the Currie Cup following a long injury layoff.
Besides Kitshoff, the Boks have all their frontline props fit and ready to go. Newcomers Gerhard Steenekamp, Jan-Hendrik Wessels put in top performances against the Wallabies in their recent, but will fight out with Kitshoff for a place in the Boks’ matchday 23 against the All Blacks.
@JohnGoliath82