Powerhouse No 8 Jasper Wiese is back after serving a four match suspension from a red card picked up against Italy in July.
Springbok bruiser Jasper Wiese now has a new moniker in the team — “professional trainer”.
The big eighthman will make his return to competitive rugby in the Boks’ crunch Rugby Championship match against the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday following a two month suspension.
Wiese was named to start at No 8 by coach Rassie Erasmus which solves what has been something of a headache for the Boks in the last few weeks as they have struggled to find a suitable replacement for the first-choice man.
Jean-Luc du Preez, (Jasper’s brother) Cobus Wiese, Siya Kolisi and Kwagga Smith have all started at the back of the scrum at various stages of the season so far, so Wiese’s return from his ban should bring a measure of stability to No 8.
Erasmus has, however, always dismissed the notion they have a problem at No 8, backing the utility forwards to step up when needed, and they have for the most part, while Du Preez has been incredibly unlucky as he was supposed to start the last two games, only for illness and injury to do him in.
Professional trainer
Speaking at Monday’s team announcement, Erasmus chuckled as he welcomed his “professional trainer” back into the starting mix.
“Jasper is not a professional player, he’s a professional trainer. For the last eight weeks, he’s just been training, so we’re very happy to have him back,” said Erasmus with a laugh.
“Jasper probably won’t go the full 80 but it’s great to have him back in the mix. He’s always been one of our standout players and in a big Test match like this, we’ll need him.
“Siya did a great job in the first game (against Australia at Ellis Park) until he hurt his knee, and I thought he did a really good job again last weekend. Kwagga does well when he comes on and now having Jasper back is obviously a massive plus.”
World class performance
Looking ahead to the match in Wellington, Erasmus backed his new-look team to bounce back from the past weekend’s disappointing defeat in Auckland and produce a “world class performance” to keep alive their hopes of retaining their Rugby Championship title.
“Both teams will be up for the challenge this week after having to cope with heavy rain at times in Auckland,” explained Erasmus.
“After the disappointing performance we delivered in the opening stages of that match, we know we need to be much more effective in all departments this week and produce a performance both us and our supporters can be proud of.
“We need a top-class performance to ensure that we are in contention to win the Rugby Championship. We know where we went wrong last week and what we must fix, and we’ll leave no stone unturned to fix those errors.
“There’s no doubt that we have to deliver a proper 80-minute performance to do well, and we will give everything to achieve that.”
