The Springboks’ director of rugby Rassie Erasmus will be back on waterboy duty for their November internationals in the UK.
Erasmus missed the Australasia leg of the Rugby Championship – which saw SA win just one of their four matches – amid some moeilikheid surrounding him after a video of him criticising refs during the series against the British and Irish Lions went viral.
He will face a misconduct hearing for his attacks at the end of the month, but coach Jacques Nienaber has revealed that he will be back to fulfil all his duties for their Tests against Wales, Scotland and England.
Ook maar goed so for the Boks, who will miss a number of key players for the tour – most notably scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, who is key to the Boks’ kicking game.
With De Klerk out, Nienaber admits they may have to change their game plan.
The coach says: “It’s not only Faf that we are missing.
“If you look at the players that we lost through injury – Frans Malherbe, RG Snyman, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Cheslin Kolbe – they are five players that are pretty much, when in form and medically fit, will probably make the matchday 23 if not the starting XV.
“Those five guys have all been in a World Cup-winning team – so there are big losses there, not only Faf but all of them.
“Other guys like Rynhardt Elstadt [and] Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg [are also injured].
“Those are seven guys that were in the mix and are big losses, but the nice thing is that it allows you to create squad depth and experience.
“Faf will be a loss, but now it will be between Herschel Jantjies and Cobus Reinach stepping up [at No.9] and Grant Williams.
“Will we play differently? The players have different attributes and we must make sure we play towards the strength of not only our team, but also our players. “So we will have to have a look at that.”