Kolisi among stars in Springbok squad for Argentina trip
· The South African
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, and Morne van den Berg will make a welcome return from injury when a small touring group travels to Argentina on Saturday.
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Several players, such as Cheslin Kolbe, Damian Willemse, Jesse Kriel, and Ruan Nortje, among others, will reassemble at the team’s training base in Johannesburg on Sunday to begin their preparations for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) Tour against New Zealand.
“We tried to get the balance right between giving some guys who are returning from injury and who have not had too much game time in our last four matches a valuable run against Argentina, while at the same time managing the players who have played a lot of rugby this year,” said Erasmus.
“The guys who have recovered from their injuries have been training hard this week and are ready to go, so it will be great for them to get a tough Test match under the belt before we face New Zealand.
“Several players, meanwhile, have been performing for us week in and week out, so it was important that we manage their workload. Meanwhile, players such as Ox (Nche) and Franco (Mostert) are still on the road to recovery, so next week’s training camp will be useful for them to continue to put in the hard yards and for the injured players to continue their rehabilitation.”
Springbok travelling squad to Argentina (in alphabetical order):
Forwards: Lood de Jager, Ben-Jason Dixon, Thomas du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Johan Grobbelaar, Cameron Hanekom, Siya Kolisi, Elrigh Louw, Wilco Louw, Zachary Porthen, Gerhard Steenekamp, Marco van Staden, Boan Venter, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Cobus Wiese.
Backs: Andre Esterhuizen, Aphelele Fassi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ethan Hooker, Quan Horn, Herchel Jantjies, Canan Moodie, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Morne van den Berg, Edwill van der Merwe.
Ready for action
Commenting on the training camp this past week, which wrapped up on Thursday afternoon, Erasmus said: “We had a series of productive sessions throughout the week, and all the players know what we expect of them, so everyone understands the importance of building on our season.”
The match kicks off at 21:00 on Saturday, 8 August, and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.