Boks lose Faf, Du Toit but retain confidence

Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk will be out for “three to five weeks” with a soft tissue injury but 2019 World Rugby Player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit might be on the sidelines for much longer.

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Both players will miss this Saturday’s test decider against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town and are unlikely to feature in the opening part of the Rugby Championship.

Instead Cobus Reinach will be at nine rather than Herschel Jantjies because, as Jacques Nienaber explained, he is a “like for like” replacement for De Klerk and fits more in with their game plan, while Franco Mostert continues from his second- half role at seven in Du Toit’s place.

“We feel within our setup and the type of rugby we want to play, Cobus and Faf’s style of play and their skill-sets are similar. Going forward in this test match, we feel it is like for like and Herschel can bring that intensity like he does off the bench,” coach Jacques Nienaber said.

While Duane Vermeulen was many fans’ hope of a return to the side for the third test, ultimately he just wasn’t ready to be included, but Nienaber hinted he would be good to go for the Rugby Championship.

“Duane is in a process of return to play. The first phase is return to training, he went through his rehab and return to train phase. He is now in the return to play process, we just got him into our mix and he did part of our training yesterday. We said we will not play him if he is not ready and obviously he is not ready. Having not been in the environment for a while, he needs to be up to speed with how we do things.

“Thirdly he needs to be full-on medically and conditioning fit. Getting players in, if you think we have the Rugby Championship after this and then on to Australasia. There will be strict protocols in terms of getting players in in terms of Covid. To get players in will take some time.”

Nienaber admitted there was a discussion on the bench, but ultimately the way they wanted to play determined their decision to move away from their bomb squad six-two split.

“There was a discussion to stick with the six-two split or a five-three split. It was a big discussion point but we felt this will be better for the game we want to play.”

Morne Steyn will make a cameo appearance off the bench at the age of 37 and has a chance to inflict more pain on the Lions as he did in the last series in 2009.

“With Morne coming in, it was a toss up with Elton. Morne played for us in the SA A game and controlled the game well. Elton did well for us in the first test match when he came on. It was a big toss up. In our discussion when we went through the selection process, it is a long season and we’re going straight into the Rugby Championship and then the end of year tour.

“It is pretty much keeping everybody up to date, giving them game time and spreading the load. It is all that. We could have put Elton in there, it is almost like for like. Both were excellent in the outings against the Lions.”

Nienaber said he had noted the changes to the Lions but believed the biggest factor was how quickly his side could adapt to whatever the Lions throw at them.

“They have a team that can outflank you, try and go through you or over you. So our challenge will be to adapt as quickly as possible. In the first test I felt we struggled to adapt in the second half when they changed the way they attacked us. I thought in the second test we handled that better.

“As we always say we are solution driven and you are always faced with things in the test, but there will always be challenges that arise in the test and we need to find solutions for it. It is a do-or-die for both teams and it is a massive battle.”

While Warren Gatland had intimated he didn’t believe the Boks could emotionally match their performance in the second test, Nienaber pointed out the Boks had done it for three weeks in the World Cup.

“Big games do take a lot out of you in terms of emotional energy. We had the same in the World Cup in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final. It is draining with so much at stake. I didn’t see Warren’s comment but I agree, there is a lot of emotion and it is something we will have to handle as a group.

“We’ve been there before and that does make the experience easier. We’ve felt these emotions and we know how to work through it.”