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Reports surrounding Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks assistants have been described as ‘ridiculous'(Image: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nThe latest rugby news from Wales and around the worldReports surrounding Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks assistants have been described as ‘ridiculous'(Image: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
These are your evening rugby headlines on Tuesday, December 30.<\/p>\n
Rassie Erasmus rumours shut down<\/p>\n
Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann has shut down reports that he asked South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus to loan out his assistant coaches to help provide support to the United Rugby Championship side.<\/p>\n
The Bulls are currently languishing in 10th place in the URC having won just three of their opening seven matches, while they have suffered back-to-back defeats in the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n
It was reported last week that Ackermann had recruited the help of Springboks assistants Duane Vermeulen and Felix Jones, as well as defence specialist Jerry Flannery and strength & conditioning coach Andy Edwards, to provide support to the team.<\/p>\n
The reports suggested that the four men would be involved in the Bulls’ preparations for their URC derby clash with the Stormers this weekend, but Ackerman has emphatically shut down that suggestion, saying he would “never ask Rassie for game plans”.<\/p>\n
While he has admitted he spoke to Erasmus, the Bulls boss has now clarified the true nature of his conversations with the Springboks head coach, adding that it was “ridiculous” to suggest that the coaches would be in their camp this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never asked for that, and Rassie also said it wouldn\u2019t be ideal,\u201d said Ackermann, who expressed frustration with the misinformed reporting. \u201cThe thought that they would be in camp this week is ridiculous, and I challenge any press photographer to get a picture of a Bok coach at Loftus this week. That was never our intention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story was spread without the facts, and nobody bothered to speak to me. The truth is simple: I assessed everything and wanted a fresh pair of eyes to look at our defensive structures and bounce ideas off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarifying the nature of his request, he added: “I said, you\u2019ve always made your team of coaches available, and I\u2019d love it if someone like [defence coach] Jerry Flannery could come in and look at our defensive systems and share some ideas.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t expect the Bok coaches to put a plan together on how to win \u2014 that is my job as head coach. I have my own system; it was never my idea to secure plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t expect the Bok coaches, one of whom lives in Ireland, to be at Loftus every week,” Ackermann continued. “I\u2019d be happy if they rotated, which is where the idea of involving Duane Vermeulen and Felix Jones came in.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I would never ask Rassie for game plans, merely a careful eye on what we are doing. This is about alignment and perspective, not about outsourcing our coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wales star update issued amid injury woes<\/p>\n
Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington has issued a positive update on Wales star Tomos Williams amid a “relentless” injury crisis at Kingsholm.<\/p>\n
Williams received treatment for a leg injury during his side’s defeat to Saracens on Saturday and left the field gingerly, but Skivington has allayed any concerns of a lay-off by revealing that the Welshman simply suffered a dead leg during the Gallagher PREM clash.<\/p>\n
The Cherry & Whites’ list of absentees is growing week on week, with Skivington also seeing Ben Loader, Will Butler and Harry Taylor forced off at the weekend. However, Williams’ injury is not serious, in a boost for club and country with the Six Nations<\/a> fast approaching.<\/p>\n \u201cBenny looked like he was holding his hamstring. Obviously, he\u2019s been out for a few months with his hamstring, so I don\u2019t expect that to be positive,” said Skivington. \u201cWill (Butler) was a HIA so he\u2019ll be OK.<\/p>\n \u201cTomos got a bit of a dead leg. He had a bang just at the start of the second half, and Harry, I didn\u2019t get a message as to what it was, but it looked like he dislocated his finger and then couldn\u2019t get it back in.\u201d<\/p>\n Will Trenholm, Josiah Edwards-Giraud, Seb Blake and Ben Redshaw are all set to return from time on the sidelines early in the New Year, but the likes of Caolan Englefield, Will Joseph and Wales international Max Llewellyn are set to follow later.<\/p>\n With Skivington’s squad depth tested week on week, he admits he is at a loss as to why the injuries are piling up, but is trying to look at every possibility.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s definitely a challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cFor whatever reason, we\u2019ve lost two or three bodies every fixture, barring Harlequins at home. I wish I had the answer for that, but I don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year we were pretty fit and healthy until the back end of the season, where we lost a few bodies, and there are a few teams that play on artificial pitches, so I\u2019m not sure. I couldn\u2019t say why it is or why it isn\u2019t but it\u2019s definitely pretty relentless at the moment.”<\/p>\n Thomas facing Six Nations fitness race<\/p>\n Wales prop Gareth Thomas is facing a race against time to prove his fitness ahead of the Six Nations.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old has been an important player for Wales over the past few years but has fallen behind Nicky Smith and Rhys Carr\u00e9 in the loosehead pecking order. And Ospreys<\/a> head coach Mark Jones has revealed he won’t be back until the end of the month due to a calf injury.<\/p>\n “The calf proved to be a bit more longer-term than we thought at first,” he said. “We will probably see him towards the end of January as opposed to coming back in the early part.<\/p>\n “We are just making sure we are getting Gareth right now. He is working hard in the background with the conditioning and the medical staff. We are hoping for some involvement for January 26 but I don’t want to hold the medical or conditioning staff to that.<\/p>\n “The early indication is that it could be around that period. He has to come through some tests on and off the field for that to happen but it’s what we have in the calendar.”<\/p>\n Ulster star out for weeks<\/p>\n Ulster star Juarno Augustus is set to be sidelined for “a number of weeks” after suffering an ankle ligament injury against Connacht in the URC.<\/p>\n The South African No.8 was forced off during the second half of his side’s 29-24 win in Galway, with his club revealing that the injury he sustained is “significant”.<\/p>\n “He’s going to see someone about it on Friday,” Ulster head coach Richie Murphy told BBC<\/a> Sport NI.<\/p>\n “We’re not sure exactly on the timeline, but yeah we won’t be seeing him over the next couple of weeks. It gives him an opportunity then to retrain himself and get himself nice and fit and come back fighting bigger and stronger hopefully.”<\/p>\n However, Murphy has been boosted by the return of experienced Ireland internationals Iain Henderson and Rob Herring from injury, with Eric O’Sullivan and Matthew Dalton also back in team training and available for selection.<\/p>\n “It’s a big boost for the squad,” said the Ulster boss, whose side currently sit fifth in the URC table. “Their experience and work in the early part of the season was really valuable for us.<\/p>\n “I think if you look at the likes of Harry Sheridan, Charlie Irvine and even Izzy [Cormac Izuchukwu], some of these younger guys, having a guy like Hendy in there is really valuable for them.”<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our<\/strong> free daily newsletter here<\/strong><\/a> and our <\/strong>WhatsApp channel here<\/strong><\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest rugby news from Wales and around the worldReports surrounding Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks assistants have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[131890,4151,4209,44812,79,23127,16,15,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-663238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-gloucester-rugby","9":"tag-rugby","10":"tag-six-nations","11":"tag-south-africa-rugby-team","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-todays-updates","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115810503539043817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}