South Africa’s preparation for the upcoming All Blacks series received a crucial match-fitness boost despite a late injury blow, reports The Citizen.

It wasn’t a great game, with the Boks looking very disjointed, but securing a tough win and getting important game time into players ahead of the first Test in under two weeks’ time were the main goals for the team, and from that point they came through with flying colours.

Locks Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager, flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, utility backs Canan Moodie and Ethan Hooker, flyhalf Handre Pollard and scrumhalf Morne van den Berg all came through the match safely and will now have a chance to make the team for the match at Ellis Park.

The only blip was captain Siya Kolisi injuring his hamstring, after he had been ruled out of the Nations Championship games with a different hamstring injury, and now awaits scans to see the extent of the new injury.

Erasmus pleased with returning players

Overall, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus was pleased with what he saw from the returning players, while admitting they were a bit ‘leg weary’.

“Eben Etzebeth going 80 (minutes) was important. I thought we saw the old Eben again in the game. He was physical, he carried well. He defended well,” said Erasmus.

“Lood de Jager was really physical in the first 25–30 minutes when he was relatively fresh, and then obviously the pace of the game got to him because he hasn’t played in almost a year. I thought Siya was really dynamic with his carries and his clean-outs during his 25 minutes.

“Sacha was back playing for the first time in a very long time and he wasn’t very accurate, you could see he got tired. Obviously for Krappie (Van den Berg), it was very blustery and windy so it was difficult to control the box-kicks.

“I thought Canan came through well and Ethan came through well after their injuries and being out for a while.”

Hanekom impresses

One of the Bok players who did impress on the night was eighthman Cameron Hanekom, who put in a massive shift, but Erasmus banished any thoughts that he might challenge Jasper Wiese for the starting No 8 berth against the All Blacks.

“Jasper Wiese is our clear first choice No 8. Cameron really played well against an Argentinean side that knocked us over a few times. So now we have another (serious) option there,” explained Erasmus.

“Elrigh (Louw) also did well at stages, while we have Pieter-Steph (du Toit), Paul (de Villiers) and Siya (if his injury isn’t serious) is coming back (who can all step in). Andre (Esterhuizen) can play at eight for us, Marco van Staden as well.

“It is lekker to have those options and we will try to pick the 23 that we think can beat New Zealand hopefully. However, Cameron is starting to settle nicely into the team and he is calm and understands what we want to do. He is getting better with every game.”

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