Last waltz over for Vickerman?
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:14
Wallabies lock Dan Vickerman may have unwittingly played his final match for Australia last Saturday in Durban against the Springboks.
The South African-born lock will miss Saturday's Tri-Nations clash against the Boks in Johannesburg, and is reportedly struggling to shake off the shoulder injury sustained last week in Durban.
Vickerman is in a race to be fit for the crunch clash against New Zealand in Brisbane on September 13, a match that will decide the winner of the 2008 Tri-Nations.
The player is expected to hang up his rugby boots for a while at least, as he is due to resume his studies in economics at Cambridge University in England.
The forward has been plagued by shoulder problems in his career, and the current injury has been described as a "grade three" injury by Aussie coach Robbie Deans.
Vickerman has played 55 Tests for the Wallabies, making his debut back in 2002 when his great form for the Brumbies in the Super 12, and for Australia A saw him graduate to the national side.
Springbok assistant coach Gary Gold spoke about the leading lock, and reflected that it would have been hard to predict whether Vickerman would have had the same success had he stayed in South Africa, given the strength and quality of the Springbok lock partnership of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha over the years.
"I think when he left South Africa he was a massive loss to South Africa and a huge gain for Australia," Gold told AAP on Saturday.
"He's one of the unique type of locks as a five lock, he's very much in the Victor Matfield mould where he just has an uncanny knack for reading the line-outs and being very good at it.
"He's had a fantastic Test career and I think he'll be sorely missed in Australia.
"I wouldn't have foreseen that he would have played with Victor because I don't think anybody in their right mind would leave Bakkies Botha out," Gold said.
"It's impossible to tell, it may have been a fantastic rotation policy with the three of them should Dan have stayed in South Africa, but he didn't.
"We're very blessed in South Africa, we've got some fantastic second-rowers [locks]. Dan's a fantastic player but we're very, very lucky. We were able to in 2007 win a World Cup without him and in 2004 win a Tri-Nations without him."
