Springboks suffer injury setback ahead of Rugby Championship opener against Wallabies

South Africa’s preparations for their Rugby Championship opener against Australia at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday suffered a setback when loosehead prop Ox Nche was forced to withdraw after sustaining a pectoral muscle injury.

Nche, who has been replaced in the starting line-up by Steven Kitshoff, is set to be sidelined for several weeks and will miss the rest of the Rugby Championship.

Kitshoff withdraws from Boks’ travelling squad to New Zealand

Kitshoff was a late withdrawal from the Springboks‘ early travelling squad to Auckland for their clash against the All Blacks at Mount Smart Stadium on July 15.

With Nche ruled out, Bulls and ex-junior Springbok front-row Gerhard Steenekamp has been drafted into the national squad, and had his first training session with the side on Wednesday. The talented 26-year-old will fly out to New Zealand on Wednesday night to train with the the other players who departed on Tuesday.

Experienced prop Trevor Nyakane is also training with the squad in Pretoria and will continue to serve as back-up cover, alongside Elton Jantjies (fly-half) and Herschel Jantjies (scrum-half) for the Test against the Wallabies.

“It’s never ideal to lose a player to injury days before an important Test match, but unfortunately it’s part of the game,” said Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber.

“We are particularly sad for Ox because he’s been working very hard in the last few months and making a great contribution on and off the field. We wish him a speedy recovery.

“On the upside we have players like Steven and Trevor to fall back on, and with both players having been with us in Pretoria for the last three-and-a-half weeks, it’s an easy switch for this match.

“We’ve always emphasised the importance of being adaptable as a team and that will be particularly important this season with the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, World Cup warm-up games and the global showpiece itself coming up.

“We are fortunate to have such depth at our disposal. We’ve been tracking between 50 and 60 players in the last few seasons with an eye on the World Cup, so we know what talent we have at our disposal.

‘Fantastic opportunity for Steenekamp’

“This will also be a fantastic opportunity for Gerhard to experience our systems and to be in the national set-up. He’s been impressive for the Vodacom Bulls this season and he’s a former Junior Springbok, so we are excited to see what he has to offer at training.”

South Africa (revised): 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Lukhanyo Am (c), 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Duane Vermeulen (c), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Evan Roos, 21 Deon Fourie, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Damian Willemse

Date: Saturday, July 8
Venue: Loftus Versveld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 17:05 local (16:05 BST, 15:05 GMT)
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZR)
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (NZR), Andrea Piardi (FIR)
TMO: Brendon Pickerill (NZR)

Travelling group to New Zealand: Malcolm Marx, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert, Jean-Luc du Preez, Kwagga Smith, Faf de Klerk, Cheslin Kolbe, Makazole Mapimpi, Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel, Siya Kolisi, Gerhard Steenekamp, Jasper Wiese.

READ MORE: Winners and losers from the Springboks team to face the Wallabies