Juarno Augustus is still on Springboks’ radar as Rassie Erasmus ‘hopes’ he will debut soon
Juarno Augustus and an inset of Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus.
Juarno Augustus is still on the Springboks radar despite his absence from the squad for the upcoming Nations Championship matches.
That is according to head coach Rassie Erasmus, who says that the Ulster back-rower is simply absent due to the fact that he is currently injured.
Augustus was largely overlooked for Test duty during his time with the Stormers before making the move to Northampton Saints in 2021. He played a pivotal role in the PREM Rugby club’s surge into the Investec Champions Cup during their 2024/25 season and their domestic title victory the season before.
Rassie Erasmus: Why Juarno Augustus is not in the Springboks squad
That led to his inclusion for the Springboks‘ 2025 July internationals, but he was denied a debut through injury, and fast forward 12 months, his luckless run has continued.
He impressed during his debut season at Ulster, too, and in his absence, Erasmus has included the likes of Evan Roos, Jasper Wiese, and Cameron Hanekom as candidates for the number eight jumper, with Vincent Tshituka, Marco van Staden and Cobus Wiese other options for the role.
Erasmus explained that despite his injury troubles, Augustus remains in the mix for a possible call-up to the Springboks squad.
“We track all players from all competitions that we think can play for us when we do our depth chart, and we try to take five, six deep in a position, and Juarno is definitely in that scope, but he’s still injured, and unfortunately, he’s not available,” he said.
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“We have tested Evan, Jasper, Cameron, and maybe Elrigh [Louw] comes back into the mix, and we test him… the season is long. So yes, hopefully we can give him a chance somewhere, but at this stage he’s unfortunately injured.”
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The Bok boss did not disclose the severity of Augustus’ injury but says that the current squad could be changed after the opening game against England.
“This squad is not the only guys that we will use for the first three Test matches, and after that, there are some massive matches and the squad will definitely rotate,” he said.
