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Late change to Springboks 23 ahead of Pumas opener
By Sam Smith
The Springboks have been forced into a late change for Saturday’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship Test against Argentina in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Jaden Hendrikse has been called up to the Springbok bench as a result of the withdrawal of Herschel Jantjies due to injury.
Jantjies pulled out of the match-day squad on Friday due a hip pointer niggle, prompting Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber to name the uncapped Hendrikse as the replacement scrumhalf.
The former Junior Springbok and current Cell C Sharks scrumhalf joined the Bok squad last week Monday in the build-up to the final Test against the British & Irish Lions – which South Africa won 19-16 to clinch the Castle Lager Lions Series.
“Jaden has been very active at training since joining the camp, so we are confident that he will slot into the team and adapt to our structures with ease if he takes the field,” said Nienaber.
“He has been comfortable in the role at our training sessions, and it has been encouraging to see how he has stepped up at this level since he joined the squad.
“Jaden has also been in all of our team meetings, so he knows exactly what we are expecting from Argentina and how we want to play, and he was one of the players in the expanded squad of 25 that have been preparing for this match, so we believe he will be up for this challenge.”
The match kicks off at 17.05 SA time at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.
SPRINGBOK TEAM:
15 – Damian Willemse
14 – Sbu Nkosi
13 – Jesse Kriel
12 – Frans Steyn
11 – Aphelele Fassi
10 – Elton Jantjies
9 – Cobus Reinach
8 – Jasper Wiese
7 – Kwagga Smith
6 – Siya Kolisi
5 – Lood de Jager
4 – Eben Etzebeth
3 – Wilco Louw
2 – Joseph Dweba
1 – Ox Nché
Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx
17 – Trevor Nyakane
18 – Vincent Koch
19 – Marvin Orie
20 – Marco van Staden
21 – Dan du Preez
22 – Jaden Hendrikse
23 – Morné Steyn
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It’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
Go to commentsDon’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
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