Rassie Erasmus details brutal South Africa injury list as doubt cast on 4 Springboks

Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has revealed a growing injury list after South Africa’s 45-21 Nations Championship victory over England, with concerns over four players following a match in which the world champions were already forced into late changes before kick-off.

The Boks overcame the eve-of-match withdrawals of captain Siya Kolisi and veteran lock Eben Etzebeth to score seven tries in a commanding win at Ellis Park, but Erasmus admitted there are now fresh concerns over Ox Nche and Andre Esterhuizen, while Kolisi and Etzebeth will continue to be monitored ahead of next weekend’s clash with Scotland.

“Ox Nche (knee) was likely to miss Saturday’s match against Scotland after coming off in the early stages of the game while Etzebeth and Kolisi would be monitored. Andre Etserhuizen, who was replaced following a blow to the neck in a tackle, would also be assessed.”

South Africa had already suffered a major disruption before facing England. Kolisi was ruled out with a hamstring issue and Etzebeth was withdrawn following a head knock.

Those setbacks handed Paul de Villiers a debut and Cameron Hanekom a rare opportunity in the starting side.

Erasmus said the squad’s depth was tested, but he believes the enforced changes could prove valuable with the Rugby World Cup now less than a year away.

“Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to slot players in and out. It’s tough not to play Siya when Paul is coming through and Marco (van Staden) is coming through, and you ask yourself where are you going to play them [if Siya is always fit].

“But we have a saying ‘it will come to us’ [blooding players]. We believe in that – that it will come to us – but certainly we have to make big calls in this year to be 100 per cent sure when we go into the World Cup next year that we’ve tested our depth, and today destiny took charge of that and it worked out the right way.

“It’s not a nice thing to lose two players who sit to either side of me [in the team photo] but you have to make the best of it.

“The average age of the team with them in it was 31 and after the other boys came in the average age was 27 and you must see the positives in that. Paul will certainly learn from that experience and so will Cameron (Hanekom) and Pietie (Pieter-Steph du Toit) being captain and playing four lock which he hasn’t played for a long time, so we’re happy.”

While injuries dominated much of the build-up and aftermath, Erasmus was also pleased with how his side responded after seeing a 17-0 lead trimmed to 17-14 by halftime.

The South Africa coach admitted memories of last year’s collapse against Australia at Ellis Park were fresh in the minds of his players at the break.

“We did have flashbacks to last year and it’s easy to say after you win that you learn from mistakes but the chat at halftime was definitely: ‘boys we’ve been here before and we know how it feels if we don’t rectify things in the second half’,” said Erasmus.

“A lot of things that Tony (Brown) and Stokke (Mzwandile Stick) said were spot on. Obviously, we had to be really honest with one another at halftime, but luckily we had that game last year and we could rectify things during the half-time chat.”

South Africa responded emphatically after the interval, pulling away from England with four second-half tries to secure a convincing victory despite the disruption caused by injuries before and during the contest.

Erasmus acknowledged that injuries at lock have been a particular challenge, but was satisfied with how the squad adapted.

“I’d like to have given Riley (Norton) a run here but then Ben-Jason (Dixon) comes on and had a really good impact and we could mingle it a bit with guys playing six, seven and eight with Jasper (Wiese) and Cameron and Marco and, all in all I thought it was an above average performance.”