Boks hit by club withdrawals for blockbuster finale against England

Several key players will be missing from the Springbok team when they face old foes England in a blockbuster season finale at a sold-out Twickenham in London on Saturday.

With the clash falling outside the traditional World Rugby Test window clubs have the right to veto their players’ involvement with their national teams.

Cheslin Kolbe (Toulon), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier), Vincent Koch (Stade Francais), Trevor Nyakane (Racing 92), Andre Esterhuizen (Harlequins) and Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) have not been permitted to extend their stay with the Boks.

All the affected players had to report for club duty within a day or two after the Springboks’ Test against Italy on Saturday.

This has forced Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber to call up six players to his squad.

SA A team captain Thomas du Toit, Ntuthuko Mchunu (both props), Marco van Staden (flank), Johan Goosen (flyhalf) and Grant Williams (scrumhalf) will all join the Boks.

Bulls wing Canan Moodie has recovered from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the tour and will also join up with the team in London.

“The players who will join us from the SA A team all put up their hands in the midweek games and we are delighted to have them in the mix this week,” Nienaber said.

“Canan has shown what he can do at Test level, and I am sure he will be delighted to be back in the squad.

“Some of the players were with us on tour until after the Ireland Test and it was always the plan to recall them after the SA A matches.

“As we said from the outset, we wanted as many players as possible to get game time on this tour as we look ahead to the Rugby World Cup next year, and we believe the players and the team will benefit from this in the next few months.

“We know it is going to be a tough challenge against England, and we have already turned our attention to that match.

“There are a lot of positives we can take from the Tests against Italy, France and Ireland, but England will pose a completely different challenge and we need to be ready for that.

“We want to build momentum and finish the tour on a positive note, so we will work as hard as we can this week to achieve that.”

Pivot Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has returned to Cape Town after suffering a tibia injury playing for SA A against the Bristol Bears on Thursday.

The injury prevented him from joining the Springbok squad in Genoa ahead of the Test against Italy.

“Sacha said after the game that it didn’t seem too serious. He will go for scans,” SA A coach Mzwandile Stick said on Thursday.

It could, however, be serious enough to rule the 20-year-old flyhalf out of the Stormers’ match against the Scarlets in Cape Town on Friday.

Feisty Bok hooker Malcolm Marx said his team were delighted to get back on the winning track after their earlier defeats in Dublin and Marseille.

“We obviously displayed what we can do in Genoa,” he said. “The last two weeks didn’t go our way, but the way the guys stood up this week was awesome.

“We are happy there were a few tries. The guys worked hard during the week and we tried to execute as well as possible.

“But we know there is room for improvement, and we will look at the areas we need to work on going into next week.”