The uncapped Ruan Venter is one of the new faces in the Springbok squad to face Portugal, but Rassie Erasmus has lost several key players for the Bloemfontein clash.
Erasmus has called up five players for the world champions’ first-ever Test against the European minnows at Free State Stadium on Saturday, with the 41-man squad featuring seven uncapped players.
However, two-time World Cup winner Franco Mostert and speedster Edwill van der Merwe have been ruled out due to injury, with the extent of their ailments set to be confirmed on Monday.
Veteran centre Damian de Allende, meanwhile, was permitted to leave the camp due to personal reasons.
Capped Springboks Elrigh Louw and Ntuthuko Mchunu, along with Venter, Quan Horn and Andre-Hugo Venter, have joined the current group, including eight of the nine players who were released to their provincial unions last week to participate in the Currie Cup.
Erasmus said on Saturday night in Durban after a 25-24 defeat by Ireland at Kings Park that several players would be released on Wednesday once the team had concluded their main on-field preparations for the match with the Portuguese.
The Boks arrived in the Free State capital on Sunday afternoon and will begin their on-field preparations on Monday.
“It was always part of our planning to expose a few players to top class international rugby against Portugal in line with our objective to build squad depth with an eye on the 2027 Rugby World Cup,” said Erasmus.
“Some of the players had a taste of international rugby against Wales at Twickenham, others received an opportunity off the bench against Ireland, and Andre-Hugo toured with us to London for the Wales Test, so we are delighted with the quality of the players coming through the ranks.
“Portugal are a quality team as they showed in the World Cup last year by defeating Fiji, and we have no doubt they’ll want to make a strong statement against us, so although we may mix things up for this Test, we’ll select a quality team that we have full faith in to get our season back on track.
“The players we plan to release will continue to put in the hard yards to prepare the team that will face Portugal, as we generally do with the non-playing players, which is invaluable in preparing the team as well as possible.”
Erasmus admitted that while it was a blow to go down against Ireland, the break for the players set to be released will be important as they look ahead to a challenging Rugby Championship, which features back-to-back Tests against Australia (in Brisbane on 10 August and Perth on 17 August), two home Tests against New Zealand in Johannesburg and Cape Town (31 August and 7 September), a Test against Argentina in Santiago (21 September) and the final match of the series against the Pumas in Nelspruit (28 September).
“This is a long and challenging season, and as much as it would have been great to win both matches against Ireland, it’s vital that we manage the players well to allow them to regenerate in order to maximise their performances throughout the season,” said Erasmus.
“Those players will have 10 days off, which means they’ll be fresh when they rejoin the squad before the Rugby Championship.”
Erasmus will announce his matchday 23 to face Portugal on Tuesday.
Full Springbok squad:
Props: Ntuthuko Mchunu, Ox Nche, Gerhard Steenekamp, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Frans Malherbe, Vincent Koch, Trevor Nyakane, Thomas du Toit.
Hookers: Bongi Mbonambi, Malcolm Marx , Johan Grobbelaar, Andre-Hugo Venter.
Locks: Eben Etzebeth, Salmaan Moerat, RG Snyman.
Loose forwards: Siya Kolisi, Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Phepsi Buthelezi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos, Ruan Venter, Kwagga Smith, Jasper Wiese.
Scrumhalves: Faf de Klerk, Grant Williams, Cobus Reinach, Morne van den Berg.
Flyhalves: Handre Pollard, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Manie Libbok.
Centres: Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Jesse Kriel.
Outside backs: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cheslin Kolbe, Willie le Roux, Makazole Mapimpi, Aphelele Fassi, Quan Horn.
Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images
The post Five in, three out for Boks versus Portugal appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
