Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber were both delighted to welcome Elton Jantjies back into the Springbok fold, despite the flyhalf’s controversial 2022 season.

Jantjies (32) – who last played for the Boks in August last year – was left out of the squad that toured Europe last November as he was without a club and lacked match fitness.

His absence came after an alleged affair with team dietician Zeenat Simjee made headlines and he was sent home while the Boks were in Argentina to face Los Pumas.

“With the two injuries that we had last week, we only had Manie standing in as the flyhalf,” Nienaber explained during a press conference on Tuesday.

“He is close to 50 Test matches, and he has been in our environment. It is nice to get him in the mix for the two injured guys. In a week or two’s time, we can have all four of them.

“Elton is probably our fourth choice flyhalf. We are lucky in terms of depth to have a guy of his standard as a fourth choice.”

Springbok director of rugby Erasmus went further to support the decision to recall Jantjies.

“In 2020, Elton was chosen as South Africa’s Super Rugby Player of the Decade.

“With a player that has been with us — like Kwagga [Smith] or Pieter-Steph du Toit — it is easy to evaluate those guys because you know them. You can look at his actions, his fitness, and how he is doing.

“We don’t want Handre and Damian to be forced into a corner to be ready for the first Test; not when you have a guy that is sitting on 47 Tests, who just recently won the All Blacks game for us, and who started for us last year against Australia. There are not a lot of things that he must learn.

“He deserves a chance. I’m not sure if he will play in the Australian Test. It will depend on how quickly Damian recovers — that will be our marker.”