LONDON – South Africa’s Captain Jean de Villiers has retired from international rugby after being ruled out of the tournament with a broken jaw.
De Villiers career is an illustrious one spanning 14 years, 178 club appearances and 109 tests including 2 Barbarians appearances. And while his Rugby World Cup record hasn’t been particularly impressive, suffering four tournament-ending injuries in four different World Cups, de Villiers cements himself as one of the greats of the South African game
The second substantial blow to Springboks World Cup hopes in as many weeks will make it even harder for them to qualify at top of their pool and avoid a clash with the winners of Pool A.
There will be many questions now over the handling of de Villiers who only played his first match since coming back from a broken jaw in the Springboks loss to Japan last week.
South African Coach Heyneke Meyer would have been hoping to ease de Villiers into the tournament. However Meyer will now be forced to replace him in the starting line-up with Damian de Allende or Jesse Kriel who have both impressed in de Villiers absence.