Juarno Augustus has for years been earmarked to be the ideal candidate to take over the role of Duane Vermeulen as his successor. Despite this, earning a national call-up during his time at the Stormers proved to be a difficult task for the former Stormers No 8.
After pulling off dominant performances for his new club Ulster, coach Rassie recently named him in the extended squad who will be on stand-by for the Autumn Nations Series. However, the 27-year-old has now suffered another setback.
Ulster provided an injury update ahead of their game in Johannesburg, revealing that Augustus had sustained an arm injury during their match against the Sharks.
“Juarno Augustus suffered an arm injury, and his fitness will be monitored through training this week,” the club confirmed.
This is only the second time this year that he has missed out on making his international debut.
Juarno Augustus misses initial call-up
After having an outstanding season with the English club, Northampton Saints, the 2017 World Rugby Junior Player of the Year was rewarded by receiving a national call-up to the Springbok alignment camp in June.
Despite initially joining the virtual session because of prior commitments with the club, his hopes of wearing the green and gold during the mid-year series against Italy were quickly cut short.
The reason was primarily due to injury.
Plagued by injuries
The uncapped loose-forward would most likely have been given game time when the Boks faced the Barbarians in Cape Town. It was later reported that he had sustained an injury while playing for his former club. This left him out of contention.
“It is a blow not to have Juarno with us and available as we wanted to get him involved and have a look at him,” Rassie said at the time.
He added that having Juarno transition from one club to another has made the situation extra difficult.
“We couldn’t bring him in ourselves for rehab, so unfortunately, he is not with us now and won’t be playing for us against the Barbarians or Italy.”
If given the green light, the chance of him being called to join the team in Europe and the UK remains a possibility.
