VIDEO: Bulls leader could be a late inclusion in Bok starting line-up

SPOTLIGHT: Bulls captain Ruan Nortje could be a starter in Saturday’s Rugby Championship opener against the Wallabies.

On Tuesday, Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus announced that RG Snyman will start in the No.5 jersey for the Brisbane clash. However, he also revealed that the Leinster player picked up a niggle in training and he will be monitored in the coming days.

With Ben-Jason Dixon, Marco van Staden and Kwagga Smith on the bench, Erasmus was asked about his rationale around the cover for the second row.

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“Either the two locks must go 80 [minutes] or Pieter-Steph [du Toit] must move to lock and then we have Ben-Jason Dixon who can do a Pieter-Steph role,” Erasmus explained.

“I remember in the past a lot of people said Pieter-Steph should just play lock, which we all thought was his position in the beginning and then he became one of the best No.7s in the world.

“We think Ben-Jason can learn a lot of Pieter-Steph when it comes to alternating between No.7 and No.5.”

Erasmus added: “The bench was picked for an Australian team who likes to keep the ball in hand and they will definitely try and move us around.

“We will have to make sure there are not too many gaps and it is normally the forwards who suffer when the pace is really high.

“So, it’s either moving Pieter-Steph to No.5 or getting three fresh loose forwards on or maybe moving Ben-Jason to one of the locks.

“RG has got a little bit of a niggle and we might even move Ruan [Nortje] straight into the starting line-up to have a specialist No.5.

“We have a guy like Kwagga, so if we have three injuries in the backline, he can provide cover in that area.”

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