Springboks explain why Pollard, Am and de Jager have all missed out

Jacques Nienaber has discussed his omission of Handre Pollard, Lukhanyo Am and Lood de Jager from the 33-strong Springboks Rugby World Cup squad. Pollard suffered a calf injury while playing for Leicester last May while Am was injured in the first half of last Saturday's win for South Africa over Argentina in Buenos Aires. That was a match which de Jager missed due to severe chest problems.

Pollard and Am haven’t been completely excluded as both were named in a five-strong additional group of players that will travel with the official Springboks RWC squad to Europe for their remaining warm-up matches against Wales in Cardiff and the All Blacks in London.

“Handre’s rehab went well, but he now needs to go through a Test match week and the demands of a Test match week,” explained Nienaber. “He needs to be able to produce on a Saturday and then he has to back it up the next week and the next week without putting him in too early.

“He will be able to start training with us, whereas with Lukhanyo we think it is a two-to-four-week injury. It is still very acute, and we will probably get a better gauge at the end of this week how he is doing.

“We believe they both will have the potential to be fit and ready to go by the Scotland game, maybe the week after that, but they can only come into the World Cup squad if there is an injury or if a player does something to deselect himself.”

Nienaber didn’t elaborate on the chest injury de Jager is struggling with. “People will understand, and it is not my place to elaborate on that. I know what it is, but it is not for me to say.”

The coach acknowledged that it was not ideal that these three 2019 Rugby World Cup winners aren’t in the squad. “It’s not ideal, but I must say, that is the one thing from us as a coaching group. If someone didn’t get injured, there wouldn’t be a Siya (Kolisi) here now. I probably look at it from a positive point of view, injuries are never positive and it is unfortunate.

“But the next guy must just step in. We always said, Rassie (Erasmus) and myself, that we planned for 2023 since 2018. If you look at the quality and depth of the squad that was built over six years, that is what makes this team selection so difficult.

“Jesse (Kriel) is a straight swap for Lukhano and if you look at the squad, there is a lot of versatility. We can play Canan Moodie at 13, we can play Damian Willemse at 13 if we have to. There are a couple of options.

“Any game you play has an injury risk. You can either play guys and they become battle-hardened or you can wrap in cotton wool. You won’t have injured players, but you will take players into a World Cup where we are playing knock-out rugby from the very first game against Scotland. We still have five weeks left and we will have to work hard every day.

“It is always bad to lose players with World Cup experience, but the rest of the guys have got some game-time and they stepped in. Marvin (Orie) played Italy, England, Australia and the two Argentina games, so he had a lot of game time and could step in for Lood.”