Pienaar's knee may send him packing

Scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar won't feature against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium this weekend, and could be ruled out of the remainder of the northern hemisphere tour.

Pienaar sustained knee ligament damage against Australia in Perth in September and hasn't played since then. Even if he is cleared for the tour, team doctor Craig Roberts all but ruled him out of Saturday's contest against the Six Nations champions.

"We've assessed Ruan and we're relatively happy with where he is in terms of fitness, but once he does some running at training we'll then make a final call about his availability for the tour," Roberts said.

"We've been in contact with his club [Ulster] regarding his injury and he hasn't done a lot of field running, so we really want to judge for ourselves where he is. But at this stage it doesn't look as if he'll be available for the Test against Ireland.

"We're hoping to have him available for the England match [on November 15], but if he isn't available for that game then we will have to consider bringing in a replacement."

Francois Hougaard should start, with Cobus Reinach on the bench against Ireland.

Duane Vermeulen, who sustained a rib cartilage injury against the Wallabies at Newlands in September, has made a full recovery from that blow, but "tweaked" his rib muscle on the other side.

"Duane has been a little unlucky and we kept him out of training for three days in Johannesburg, but he has responded well," Roberts said.

The doctor gave the rest of the squad the all-clear, and declared he was happy with the general fitness of the group after a two-week build-up to the tour.

Five players involved with their European clubs at the weekend - Gurthro Steenkamp, Morné Steyn, Johan Goosen, Bryan Habana and Bakkies Botha - also came through uninjured.

Roberts was enthusiastic about the general fitness of the group at this stage of the year, despite several key players, such as Willem Alberts, Francois Louw and Fourie du Preez being unable to tour due to injury.

"It was great to have the bulk of players out of the Currie Cup and have them in camp in Stellenbosch where we could top up on their fitness," Roberts said.

"We are at the end of a long season and fitness levels generally drop, but, because of the time we had, they've actually gone up."