Springboks on high alert over players returning from injury
· The South African
In one fell swoop, Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Morne van den Berg will all make long-awaited injury comebacks against Argentina this Saturday.
Andre Esterhuizen and Ethan Hooker, who have also endured some injury battles recently, will start in a quality match-23 as well.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
However, it will require a careful balancing act to ensure the game-time of the returning players is well managed, and that it avoids any risk of aggravating previous injuries.
“The one guy that we don’t have to worry about coming back from injury (is Siya Kolisi),” Rassie Erasmus stated this week. “Prior to the 2023 World Cup, Siya had a long-term knee injury and it was always a race against time to see if he would be ready.
“Probably because of his age and his experience of injuries – a guy like Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) is probably new to a big injury like he had – you learn how to deal with injuries, how to rehab and handle the pressure and the frustrations that you go through.
“Siya’s very diligent with that, and from our experiences, we’ve never been unsure when we’ve selected him. He’s always delivered.
“We’ve got Marco van Staden on the bench, who can go on for him,” he added. “Same as with Eben (Etzebeth) and Lood (de Jager); as long as he’s productive and delivers on the field, we want to get maximum minutes out of him.
“But probably that will also be like a half or a little bit more than a half.”
Springbok coaches to carefully monitor players
Erasmus added that they would be strategic in their substitutions during the clash in Buenos Aires.
“Ben-Jason Dixon will go on for Eben and Cobus Wiese will go on for Lood, because Eben is coming back from a concussion and a long time that he hasn’t played and he won’t last 80 minutes,” he said.
“Lood hasn’t played for a long time and we’ll see how long they last in the game and then Cobus will come on and call the lineout. It will be straight swaps for four and five.”
The Test starts at 21:00 this Saturday.
how the team will line up
SPRINGBOKS – 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 André Esterhuizen, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Boan Venter.
Subs: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Cobus Wiese, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Morné van den Berg, 23 Handré Pollard