The Springboks arrived at their Jersey camp without their Buffalo - tighthead prop Frans Malherbe - who is still in South Africa receiving treatment for an injury suffered in this past weekend’s match playing for the DHL Stormers.
And now the choice for coach Rassie Erasmus is to either wait and see how serious the injury is, or to call up a replacement.
The Boks have the luxury of waiting a bit for the injury to subside, and decide whether it is serious enough to warrant a replacement, and if that is the case, whether the replacement needs to be a tighthead prop.
When Damian Willemse was injured in the same game, Erasmus called up flanker Cameron Hanekom, rather than a like-for-like replacement in a fullback/utility back.
The Boks called up Wilco Louw as replacement for the injured Jan-Hendrik Wessels last week, and already have Vincent Koch in the squad as tightheads. Thomas du Toit, who plays mainly at loosehead at the moment,has played all his tests for the Boks at tighthead this year and can play on both sides of the scrum.
Wessels ironically also suffered an ankle injury and was ruled out. As a “swinger” he was selected as a utility forward to cover both hooker and prop, and when he was ruled out, his Bulls’ teammate Johan Grobbelaar was also called up.
Malherbe has been an integral part of the Bok set-up for years now, and him missing the odd training session or two won’t be a train smash, but tightheads aren’t a dime a dozen, and as a specialist position Erasmus may well feel the need not to rush a decision in a week where the team is on a training camp.
BOISTEROUS WELCOME
The side arrived to a small but boisterous South African welcome on the island of Jersey, where they will spend the next week before heading to Scotland for their first test of the three test tour.
Fitness guru Andy Edwards said it was good to get everyone together to regroup and focus ahead of the three match tour.
“It’s our first time together after the Rugby Championship, and with the players doing different things over the last few weeks, it’s good to get back together and regroup,” said Edwards.
“The Vodacom URC players had a combination of down time with others playing, and the UK and European-based players are also back from their clubs, while the Japanese players were on a break.
“The main thing is to get back into the swing of things in terms of what the coaches want to do planning wise, and tightening things up again before the November internationals.
“With us being in Jersey, which is close to the UK, it will certainly make the transition easier for the players ahead of the November tour.”
PERFECT SETTING
Edwards said Jersey was the perfect setting for the camp and was close enough to the United Kingdom to make travel easy for the next flight the team needs to take.
“Jersey has everything we need, and it’s close to the UK, especially with us heading to Scotland next, so there won’t be concerns around long-haul travel going into the first test, which is a big positive.
“It’s also a small island and gives us an opportunity to experience something different.
“I don’t think anyone in this group has been to Jersey before, and over and above that, they have world class facilities that are only a few years old, which ticks all the boxes for our high-performance needs with a great gym and fields.
“The L’Horizon Hotel looks out onto the ocean, so from a team perspective we can push hard in terms of rugby intensity, while also achieving the balance of down time and social cohesion before the tests,” Edwards said about the Bok team hotel.
The Boks preparations will begin in earnest on Tuesday.