Injuries hamper Junior Boks

The Junior Springboks have made six changes to their starting XV for the World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final against England on Monday.

Wing S’busiso Nkosi and scrumhalf Embrose Papier have been ruled out of the clash due to thigh and ankle injuries respectively, while coach Dawie Theron has recalled flanker Ernst van Rhyn to the starting lineup in place of Cobus Wiese.

The Eastern Province duo of prop Nicolaas Oosthuizen and hooker Tango Balekile join forces with Blue Bulls prop Jaco Holtzhausen in the front row, which results in Franco van den Berg, Jan-Henning Campher and Carlü Sadie dropping to the bench.

In other changes among the replacements, lock Eduard Zandberg takes over from Van Rhyn and Wiese replaces Denzel Hill.

'We were unfortunate in the last few days with regard to injuries,' said Theron. 'Carlü Sadie hurt his ankle and Franco van den Berg had a bad contusion to his leg, so they were unable to train. But fortunately they are ready to play off the bench. We also lost S’busiso Nkosi and Embrose Papier to freak accidents at training, and they were both unavailable for selection. Despite this, the spirit in the camp is very good and the guys have trained well, so we are very positive.'

The match kicks off at 20:45 SA time.

Junior Springboks – 15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Mosolwa Mafuma, 13 Jeremy Ward (c), 12 JT Jackson, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 8 Junior Pokomela, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Zain Davids, 5 Eli Snyman, 4 Ruben de Villiers, 3 Jaco Holtzhausen, 2 Tango Balekile, 1 Nicolaas Oosthuizen.
Subs: 16 Jan-Henning Campher, 17 Franco van den Berg, 18 Carlü Sadie, 19 Eduard Zandberg, 20 Cobus Wiese, 21 James Hall, 22 Franco Naude, 23 Keanu Vers.

Photo: Clint Hughes/Getty Images

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