The Springboks will look to shake off their ‘lock hoodoo’ as they wait on the fitness on a number of forwards for their Rugby Championship clash against the All Blacks at Ellis Park on Saturday, with Eben Etzebeth chief among those concerns.
Springboks assistant coach Deon Davids revealed the injury problems his team were dealing with after two rounds of the competition.
The Springboks have won their first two matches away against Australia. In fact, both matches saw the Springboks convincing victors with similar scorelines.
Though Etzebeth has not been ruled out yet, his progress would be monitored by Springbok management.
Praying on Eben
“Eben Etzebeth is struggling with a bit of a niggle, so it’s also something we will look at for this coming week,” said Davids.
Davids also revealed that Salmaan Moerat, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert, Jean Kleyn would not be considered due to injury. RG Snyman, meanwhile, may not be available for an even longer period.
“Salmaan follows the normal HIA [Head Injury Assessment] protocol so he won’t be available for selection for this game. We’ve also got a hoodoo in terms of our locks. At this stage Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert, Jean Kleyn — [the] guys are out with injury. At this point in time RG Snyman is also unavailable due to a leg injury. He will be out for a couple of weeks.”
Fortunately for the Springboks, they have great depth among their forwards explained Davids.
“Pieter-Steph du Toit, Ruan Nortje had a good game in the last outing. We’ve got an experience guy in Nicolaas [Janse van Rensburg], we’ve Ben-Jason Dixon that’s also played a couple of games at lock for the Stormers. It will always be tough when you lose some experience, but it’s an exciting opportunity to see what the next guy can bring from within the squad.”