By Pyc Fitness
©2004-2008
Nick Abendanon, the 21-year-old Bath full-back, arrived at England's World Cup headquarters here last night five days before Saturday's final after being called up to replace Josh Lewsey. One of the heroes of 2003, Lewsey damaged his hamstring in the semi-final against France after scoring the game's only try. A scan has shown a tear which will keep the 30-year-old out of action for up to five weeks.
Adendanon was in England's World Cup training squad but Brian Ashton, the head coach, left him out of the final 30. He was born in Johannesburg but has been capped twice after representing England at age-group level and with the sevens and Saxons sides. In the summer he came off the bench to play in the second Test against South Africa at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, and then started the Investec Challenge match against France at Twickenham in August.
The Rugby Football Union announced Lewsey's fate in a terse statement which said he "will be replaced in the 30-man squad". Just over an hour later he confirmed the news, describing the moment when he knew he was not going to appear in consecutive finals. And then nothing for seven hours until Abendanon, who played under Ashton at Bath, was announced.
Lewsey was injured a minute before half-time during the semi-final. Until then he had been one of only two players to have been on the field for all of England's five games. England have the option of doing as they did last Saturday in response to the injury - by bringing on Leicester's Dan Hipkiss in the centre and moving Mathew Tait to the wing. However, a decision to call up a replacement suggests Ashton is contemplating more than a watching brief for the new recruit.
South Africa have no such problems and are today expected to announce a team with few if any changes from that which beat Argentina on Sunday. However, their coach, Jake White, moved quickly to head off the threat of a possible citing against the flanker Juan Smith, who was sent to the sin-bin during the final minutes of the semi-final. "In the context of the competition there has been a lot worse taking place and they have got away with it," White said of Smith's high tackle. "I would be really concerned if I now see the citing of another South African player for a [kind of] tackle which has been very, very frequent. It wasn't a swinging-arm tackle and it wasn't done with malice."
Last night there were also suggestions in the Argentina camp that they might draw the citing officer's attention to Bryan Habana's part in the felling of the former Gloucester prop Rodrigo Roncero.
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