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The red tape reason why Rynhardt Elstadt isn't available for the Toulouse trip to Munster
By Sam Smith
Tightened Irish government measures surrounding travel into Ireland are set to deny Rynhardt Elstadt the chance to line out for his French club Toulouse in this Saturday's round of 16 Heineken Champions Cup match versus in Limerick versus Munster, last weekend's beaten Guinness PRO14 finalists.
The twice-capped 31-year-old Springboks forward has been ruled out by red tape governing the rules of anyone who has recently been to South Africa. Toulouse had allowed Elstadt to go home during a vacation period to pass an airline pilot's license exam.
However, while Elstadt would have been available to play for Toulouse if the Munster match was being staged in France, the period of isolation for someone who has been to South Africa is longer in Ireland.
Elstadt has missed last weekend Top 14 match versus Montpellier due to French isolation rules, but PCR tests since came back negative and he had resumed training at the start of this week in the expectation that he would be able to be selected to play at Munster.
However, Irish government rules demand that someone who has been in South Africa isn't allowed into Ireland until a 14-day period has passed. When Toulouse travel to Limerick on Thursday, it will have only been twelve days since Elstadt left South Africa.
"He had an exam to finish to become an airline pilot," explained Toulouse boss Ugo Mola ahead of the game in Ireland. "He was allowed to leave, with the rule adapted to our government and the ministry of health.
"He had an isolation to respect before resuming activity, but we received the new regulation of the EPCR which is adapted to the Irish government and prohibits Elstadt from travelling." Skills coach AB Zondagh will also miss the match in Ireland for the same reason as Elstadt.
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Latest Comments
Yeah me too. I think the Welsh have it in them to make it a contest in the first half. Give the boks' second stringers a headache. Disrupting lineouts is one area the welsh could cause problems. Bok lineouts have been subpar.
And then fronting up in the collisions and at the rucks. If the boks get the ascendancy there too early, it could be a hiding. Jaden hendrikse had a tough game against the Scots - who were very good at disrupting the boks flow. The welsh would have taken note of this i'm sure.
But the bok bench will finish the welsh off i'm afraid.
Go to commentsYes, certainly. As an AB fan happy to be included in that top 3 of "matches that are routinely decided by one score" now, we were well outside that for a few years.
They have not had enough games yet. You can't undo so many poor years just like that. Asking for miracles like SA losing is not the way to get back to number 1.
They might get there as those bad years filter out of the rankings but it's guarenteed to be great fun going back and forth with SA once that happens.
Admittedly Foster only really had one bad year (21/22 season), but that's more likely because COVID stopped a lot of tough games from being played, and effected the other countries they did play far more than themselves.
A real shame we both don't get to see it unfold first with our regions teams in SR!
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