Lions coach Swys de Bruin comes out swinging to defend Elton Jantjies

Lions coach Swys de Bruin first gave Elton Jantjies a glowing endorsement by selecting him in his starting line-up to play the Sharks in Durban on Saturday‚ before staunchly defending the embattled flyhalf on Thursday.

Jantjies spluttered in the wet when the Springboks lost to England at Newlands last weekend‚ but De Bruin was quick to point out the challenge his star player faced in Cape Town.

“You can play flyhalf but you are only as good as the ball you get‚” De Bruin reminded.

“Rassie (Erasmus‚ the Springbok coach) said it as well‚ it is easy to blame Elton.

"I went through the game again. Often he had to do a bit of wicketkeeping. It was a wet ball and the pressure was on. He learnt a lot.”

Jantjies‚ De Bruin pointed out‚ had been through some distinct dips in his career before and he backed the player to emerge on the other side.

“Elton is a true professional‚" said Bruin.

"There is a reason he played 100 games for this franchise. Not many people achieve that. Elton has bounced back before.

“The thing about Elton is he is resilient. He can take a shot and he fights back. He does a lot of boxing as well in his spare time. He’s a fighter and a real team guy.”

The coach‚ who was the Springbok attack coach against Wales and in the three-Test series against England then pointed out something remarkable.

Neither he‚ nor his predecessor at the Lions‚ Johan Ackermann has substituted Jantjies.

“We have so much faith in him‚ even if he has a bad game we keep him on‚" he said.

"I can’t think of once. I moved him to 12 when we needed to spread the ball wide against the Reds.

"Elton has done well for us. I’ve got so much trust in him and I’ll keep on doing that.”

Jantjies will have to bounce back quickly at Kings Park.

On Saturday he will have to measure himself against Robert du Preez‚ who notwithstanding a poor Test debut against Wales in Washington‚ is a player very much on Erasmus’ radar‚ as is the Stormers’ Damian Willemse.

They are‚ however‚ all in a pecking order behind Handre Pollard who is most likely to wear the No10 jersey in the Rugby Championship that starts in August.