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South African captain Jean de Villiers will play no further part in the Rugby World Cup it was confirmed this morning. The midfielder suffered a fractured jaw in captaining his team to a 46-6 victory over Samoa in Birmingham yesterday. He has been replaced by Jan Serfontein who will join the team on Monday in Newcastle where they will face Scotland next weekend.
The fracture has come on the right side of his jaw, only weeks after returning from a similar break to the left side, suffered in August when the Springboks lost to Argentina in Durban. de Villiers had also notably recovered from a devastating knee injury to play in the Rugby Championship, and this will come as a terrible blow not only to the player but to the Springboks, whose confidence is already shaky after their historic loss to Japan.
Serfontein returns to the squad having missed much of the test season himself with a knee injury, returning to play in the return match against the Pumas in Buenos Aires. He was considered first choice centre, along with de Villiers, during the 2014 season, and was considered unlucky to miss out on the original World Cup squad. The 22-year-old was named world u20 player of the year in 2012.
