THE BULLS’ STAR wing Kurt-Lee Arendse has been ruled out of next weekend’s URC semi-final with Leinster with a fractured cheekbone and is a doubt for South Africa’s summer tests against Ireland.
Arendse, who scored the Pretorians’ first two tries in Saturday’s quarter-final victory over Benetton at Loftus Versfeld, was withdrawn on the half-hour mark after he clashed heads with Malakai Fekitoa during a tackle.
Bulls head coach Jake White has confirmed that Arendse, 27, sustained a facial fracture which will rule him out of the remainder of the Bulls’ URC campaign and will leave him in a race against time to add to his 15 Springbok caps against Ireland later this summer.
Arendse will undergo surgery on Sunday in an attempt to feature for the world champions against the back-to-back Six Nations winners in July.
“It’s such a fracture that when I say it’s not too bad, it’s a fracture they can put a plate in to try and get him ready as quickly as they can for the tests,” said Bulls head coach White.
“Every kid wants to be in the Tests, and credit to our medical staff for finding the doctor who will do the surgery tomorrow morning so quickly.
“It’s a little like the Dupont injury. Dupont got the operation the next day [but featured against the Springboks in the World Cup quarter-final a few weeks later].”
The Bulls have already lost flying outside back Canan Moodie to finger surgery, although fellow World Cup winner Marco van Staden could return from recent knee trouble against Leinster.
The potential absence of Arendse for the summer tests, however, will be of concern to ‘Boks boss Rassie Erasmus, who has already lost both Moodie and Damian Willemse from his back-three depth chart.
Every team now is implementing a stand off Ross Byrne defensive strategy vs Leinster and it’s make life very difficult for Leinster in attack. All the other backs have to work so much harder to get space. The overlaps that Leinster can’t expose because Byrne has the pace of a tight head prop means they leave so many points out there
@Eoin H: that’s not very nice. There’s no way he’s a quick as a tighthead prop.
@Eoin H: Even SP made a big difference when he came on. That chip and side kick to Deegan was gooooorgeous
@Andrew Slazenger: I’m a big fan of SP , but to be devil’s advocate, is it a little easier to attempt a side kick when you are 43-15 ahead. Not denying the skill of course
@john holmes: Of course it is, but often one team is many points ahead and you don’t see that level of skill and audacity
@Eoin H: the famous sexton loop was taken for granted!
While Leinster were deserved winners and would have won regardless, I was gutted with the injuries to Izuchukwu and Stockdale. We would have pushed Leinster with them on the pitch. Good luck Leinster, I hope an Irish province wins it.
@Rab McCracken: Izuchu’s injury was a huge loss to Ulster – they were more than matching Leinster up to then. He’s going to be some player if he can stay fit.
@James: as good as ahern/Baird?
@James: Between Izzy, Baird and Ahern, Ireland are well stocked for future blind sides.
@Gary Galligan: Yes… I was very impressed with him
The 42 are going all out to push commenters into being subscribes. Don’t fall for it. If they were good enough they’d have advertisers. Love you.
@Rab McCracken: good point…all these services have an elastic limit…push it too far and ppl will go elsewhere…if the quality is high enough (doesnt have to be writing – quantity is a quality all by itself) the advertising revenue should be sufficient…
i hope nobody is paying for off the ball either…
@Patrick Kennedy: I agree. I love talking to fans from all the provinces but it’s not worth a subscription.
@Rab McCracken: at least the Irish Times had a live blog. In return, we get bog standard reports, often with errors (in their match preview, they said today’s ref, Andrew Brace had reffed Munster v Connacht, whereas he pointedly turned down that match as he is a former Munster employee living in Limerick) and expecting their greatest asset, namely the commenters, to pay for the privilege.
@Rab McCracken: thanks for the warning. The shady bxxxards trying to get paid for working(;
I thought the Arendse tackle on Fekatoa should have been looked at. The Bennetton 12 had the ball secured before head contact was made by the unfortunate Arendse.