Sunday 30th September 2007
South Africa may have paid a dear price for their 64-15 World Cup pool victory over the United States in Montpellier on Sunday, with tighthead prop BJ Botha's participation in the remainder of the tournament almost certainly over.
Springbok coach Jake White admitted after the game that it doesn't look to good for Botha.
"Some guy fell on his knee and he has done some knee ligament damage," the Bok coach said.
"I'm hoping that it is not too serious, but when you have just five props you don't have too many of those guys around.
"We'll assess it on Monday and make a call [on a possible replacement], but it doesn't look too good and I think BJ [Botha] is going to be ruled out. A decision has to be made whether he requires surgery," said White.
Captain and hooker John Smit lamented the loss of Botha.
"I think the loss of any player at this stage is disruptive," Smit said.
"Everyone has watched BJ [Botha] over the last few years and since making his Test debut we've realised what an impact he makes - not only in the scrum, but his workrate is making a lot of tackles ... so we'll be hard-pressed to replace him with someone who works as hard as him."
However, the news is a lot more positive on flying South African winger Bryan Habana, who left the field in the second half with a nasty gash to the cheek - after scoring two of his country's nine tries, one in each half.
Habana and electric US Eagles winger Takudzwa Ngwenya collided and both needed treatment for head wounds.
The Zimbabwean-born Ngwenya received running repairs and continued playing, but Habana walked off the field.
However, he showed no after effects of the collision and should be fit to face Fiji in the quarter-final next Sunday.
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