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Victor Matfield was on Friday named as captain of the Springbok end-of-year tour on the first day of a preliminary training squad get together.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers made the announcement at a media conference and also confirmed that Juan Smith would be the tour vice-captain.
"With John Smit being injured and unavailable for such a challenging and important tour we obviously needed Victor's leadership qualities," said De Villiers.
"He has filled the role in the past with distinction and has led the Bulls and Blue Bulls to a string of titles and has been Springbok vice-captain for a number of years.
"We're aware of his workload this season and we'll manage him accordingly."
Cheetahs captain Juan Smith was named as vice-captain for the four Test tour which concludes with a match against the Barbarians at Twickenham on December 4.
The first day of the training camp concentrated on gameplan with meetings and field sessions for forwards and backs.
Six Currie Cup finalists and Blue Bulls utility forward Danie Rossouw took no part in Friday's field session as a precaution because of injury niggles.
The rested players were: Juan de Jongh, Danie Rossouw, Jannie du Plessis, Alistair Hargreaves, Willem Albert, Bismarck du Plessis and Schalk Burger.
Comments
indy says...
This tour has a P-Divvy/SARFU agenda, that is at odds with the best interests of SA Rugby, stamped all over it. A poor tour would be unacceptable to the country and would cost Divvy his job. What to do then? Add to the workload of some already overtaxed senior players, that's what. Play them to the point where by World Cup time they'll be exhausted and burnt-out. I've had enough of the pathetic, spineless administrators in this country.
Posted 15:39 24th October 2010