Amid speculation that Handre Pollard will be called up to the Bok squad, the flyhalf was named to make his return from injury on Friday night.
Pollard has been named in the matchday-23 for Leicester Tigers in the English club’s Premiership Rugby Cup clash with Sale Sharks in Salford.
It will be Pollard’s first competitive match since he suffered a calf injury in May, which plagued his preparation for the World Cup and kept him out of South Africa’s 33-player squad.
During a pre-match World Cup press conference, Jacques Nienaber said the Springbok coaches will be keeping a sharp eye on Pollard’s performance.
“We will definitely have a look at the Leicester game, and I think Handre is in the mix,” Nienaber was quoted by the Daily Maverick.
The Springboks do have a gap in their squad after hooker Malcolm Marx was ruled out of the tournament. Currently, the Boks can count on Bongi Mbonambi and utility forward Deon Fourie as options at hooker, while Marco van Staden has been training to provide cover in the position.
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Joseph Dweba, who was named on the standby list, is currently training with the Stormers in Cape Town.
No replacement will be jetted to France before the Boks face Romania in the second round of the World Cup on Sunday.
“There’s a 48-hour period before you can replace somebody so there’s some administritive stuff which I know nothing about,” Nienaber revealed.
“Our team is settled, and we have a back-up third choice if something happens with those two hookers [Mbonambi and Fourie]. We also have a Marco who can stand in for now.
“We’ll probably make a decision over the weekend after the game in terms of who we’ll bring in because, if you’re not 100% on top of your game and we start thinking about replacements, the game against Romania could become slippery.”
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