Eben Etzebeth looks set to take his place against Ireland in the Springboks' Rugby World Cup pool B clash at Stade de France on Saturday, but Handré Pollard will remain out of the selection loop.
Etzebeth's availability will be a huge boost for the Boks before their crunch clash that sees the world's top two ranked teams go head to head.
Etzebeth, who injured his shoulder in the opening win against Scotland in Marseille, faced a worst-case scenario 14 days out, but assistant coach Deon Davids said he has responded well to treatment.
“Eben is out for seven days,” said Davids, which clearly is on the rosier end of the prognosis spectrum. “He reacted well to his return to training. He will be in contention this week.”
Etzebeth's return will settle a lot of nerves. Several key players were rested for last weekend's clash against Romania and he was not earmarked for that match anyway.
Pollard's dramatic return has made the headlines but he will for now remain on the sidelines.
“He will not be selected for this weekend unless we get two or three injuries. He has just joined us. He's only played 40 minutes in 40 or 50 weeks for Leicester last Friday,” said director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.
He explained that was the reason for the flyhalf's initial omission from the World Cup squad. “There was a lot of return to training that wasn't done eventually and return to play only happened last Friday.”
Erasmus added it is good to have a player of Pollard's pedigree back in the group but the player has to get up to speed with the intensity of the Bok training. “Get through our training sessions and slot in nicely. We've played only two games at this World Cup and I'm sure at some point we will press on his button but not this weekend,” he said.
He also addressed the prickly matter of why the Boks chose Pollard as squad replacement for hooker Malcolm Marx after coach Jacques Nienaber said before the team's departure a like-for-like would be made if a front-ranker got injured.
I spoke to Joseph [Dweba] and he said, 'Coach, I understand 200%'. He knew if it was Bongi [Mbonambi] that was out it is a like-for-like hooker. A big strong ball-carrier, a devastating scrummager, a guy who tackles really hard.
— Rassie Erasmus
The Bok brains trust opted to overlook Joseph Dweba as replacement and invested in Deon Fourie returning to the hooking berth and with reacquainting Marco van Staden with a position in which he once operated.
“We could have had a group of 22 players on our standby list. When we said Joseph Dweba we always knew Marco was training there,” Erasmus said. He revealed he has spoken to Dweba about his omission.
“I spoke to Joseph and he said, 'coach, I understand 200%'. He knew if it was Bongi [Mbonambi] that was out it is a like-for-like hooker. A big strong ball-carrier, a devastating scrummager, a guy who tackles really hard. Then a guy like Malcolm [Marx] brings you a bit of everything. If we weren't confident Deon and Marco could do it, we'd be really foolish not to get Joseph in.
“At training we know our intensity, how those guys scrum against guys like Bongi and Malcolm, when he was still fit. We are fairly confident they can do the job.”
As is often the case with the Erasmus/Nienaber coaching partnership, the seeming madness is rooted in method. Erasmus explained the area in which Fourie and Van Staden can make a stunning difference for the Boks, especially at the business end of matches.
“There's also, apart from scrums and line-outs, 120 rucks in a game where Deon and Marco bring something different with carries and clean-outs.”
The Boks believe that is the battleground that may determine the winners of this year's World Cup and they are prepared to invest in it.
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