South Africa have called upon lock Lood de Jager for their final Rugby Championship fixture, against Argentina in London, after Franco Mostert was unable to travel due to a family bereavement.
While De Jager missed out on this past Saturday’s 67-30 thumping of Los Pumas in Durban due to injury, he is recovered enough to make the trip to Twickenham to take over from Mostert, who did not travel with the team.
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus said of the change on the SA Rugby site: “We all feel deeply for Franco and wish him strength during this challenging time, and we’ll support him as well as we can.
“Fortunately, Lood has recovered from his injury, and his experience and leadership will be valuable in such an important week for the team.”
After traveling on Sunday night, the Boks return to training today and Erasmus said they were feeling no ill effects of the trip up the continent.
“The journey to London was good, and with it being an overnight flight, the players rested well on the plane and look fresh and ready to get back into the swing of things,” said Erasmus.
“Fortunately, the time zone is similar to South Africa, so the players can jump straight back into action without any challenges. We’ll obviously manage them carefully this week to ensure we get the best out of them on the field on Saturday.”
Erasmus added: “This is a massive game, and we have no doubt Argentina will come out guns blazing to finish their campaign on a high note, but at the same time, we have a chance to win the competition back-to-back for the first time in history, so we have all the motivation we need this week.”
South Africa currently hold a one-point lead at the top of the standings over the second-placed All Blacks, who are on 14 points, while the Wallabies are in third place with 11 points and Argentina are at the bottom of the log with nine points.
