Africa-Press – South-Africa. Coach Jacques Nienaber says Elton Jantjies remains a part of the Springbok plans despite not being selected for the squad for a second Test in a row.
Jantjies played just 40 minutes in the No 10 jersey in the first Test against Wales at Loftus but, with the Boks 18-3 down, was pulled off at half time having endured a difficult outing.
A relative veteran of 45 Tests, the 31-year-old had delivered one of his worst performances in a Springbok jersey in his first match since being arrested for alleged malicious damage to property while on a flight to South Africa from Dubai in May.
Damian Willemse took over the flyhalf duties for the remainder of the first Test while, for the second in Bloemfontein last weekend, Handre Pollard returned.
Willemse will operate as the flyhalf cover once more for this Saturday’s series decider in Cape Town, but Nienaber says Jantjies is “unfortunate” because the Boks continue to use six forwards and just two backs on their bench.
“He probably misses out because we’re going with 6/2 splits. If we were going 5/3, Elton would probably be in the mix,” said Nienaber.
“That’s unfortunately where we are, and that’s why I thought it was so important for us to give him some game time with Handre only arriving on that Sunday. It was the ideal opportunity for us, and he’s been working with us.
“He’s got 40 minutes, and I think the conservative way of selection from our coaching group would have been to go with the 5/3 split.
“But if we did that, we probably wouldn’t have seen Damian Willemse play No 10, so we decided to stick with the 6/2 split and that’s just where we are.”
With the Rugby Championship getting under way in just over three weeks, Nienaber acknowledged that the lack of game time for Jantjies in the Wales series would leave him undercooked should he have to feature against the All Blacks in Nelspruit on 6 August.
“I guess that is the way it is.”
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