Despite his four-match ban, the big lock forward will remain in the squad ahead of the clash against Ireland in Dublin.
Despite his season coming to end after being banned for four matches, Springbok lock Lood de Jager will stay with the Springbok squad and help them prepare for their game against Ireland in Dublin next weekend.
The Boks face Italy this Saturday, before completing their tour of Europe with matches against Ireland and Wales.
In De Jager’s absence, following his receiving a red card in the match against France last weekend and subsequent suspension, the Boks have turned to Jean Kleyn and Franco Mostert to lock the scrum against Italy on Saturday. RG Snyman and Ruan Nortje will play from the bench. Eben Etzebeth is being rested.
At the Bok team announcement on Thursday coach Rassie Erasmus was asked if the ban meted out to De Jager irked him.
Appeal decision
“As I have said with past decisions on (Makazole) Mapimpi and Jan-Hendrik (Wessels), it is what it is. It’s Lood’s decision now on whether he will appeal that (decision), and I think he will make that call in the next day or two,” said Erasmus.
“But (regardless), he is going to stay with us here and help us prepare for Ireland. Obviously that is a big game for us, even though Italy is at hand and first up. But we would have loved to have Lood available for the Irish Test match.
“It’s quite ironic. Lood has often missed big games, either through injury or other things out of his control.
“I think only once in his rugby career has he got an off field red card, so we are sad for him, because he is a guy who has gone through a hell of a lot, not just in his personal life but in his rugby career as well, and missing out on a big Test match against Ireland next weekend isn’t great.
“But we have to accept that. We won’t call-up anybody else. We have 33 guys in the camp and we feel we have enough locks to cover us.”
Italy breakdown battle
Looking ahead to the match against Italy in Turin on Saturday, Erasmus explained that the breakdown battle will be a massive one, after Italy bossed the Boks in this department during the July internationals, while they also impressed there in their win over the Wallabies over the past weekend.
“They are really good at the breakdown. We didn’t only get frustrated, but were outplayed at the breakdown by them (in July),” admitted Erasmus.
“In the one game (against the Boks) they had 66 bites at the breakdown, that just shows how focused they are and that they know when to do it (attack the breakdown) really well. So that is something we will try and sort out, but it will be tough.”
