VIDEO - 'New plans': Why Lood won't be replaced in Bok squad
TURIN, ITALY: Springbok lock Lood de Jager will remain with the touring squad and help prepare the team for the upcoming Test matches, especially the one against Ireland next weekend.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus told Rugby365 it would’ve been ideal to bring in another lock, but he didn’t want to disrupt the teams playing in the United Rugby Championship.
That competition resumes on the same weekend that the Springboks take on Wales in Cardiff.
De Jager was sent from the field in the 39th minute of his side’s heavyweight bout with France in Paris, receiving a permanent red card for an act of foul play.
An independent Disciplinary Committee upheld the permanent red card decision, and when determining an appropriate ban period, they deemed the indiscretion worthy of the mid-range entry point of six weeks.
That was then reduced to four weeks, after considering the mitigating factors.
*Article continues below…
“It would be ideal to bring in another lock, but with the URC teams playing, we don’t want to disrupt them on the eve of the Welsh week when their URC campaign starts,” Erasmus confirmed.
“Lood can still train with us and help us out with training.
“So, being almost halfway through our end-of-year tour with three games to go – it’s a long tour – we want to see how we can manage that because a World Cup squad is also 33.
“So we are trying to see how we can manage it as a dry run, how we can rotate players, how we can keep them fresh, and obviously keep them focused and up for the next game,” the coach said.
“It’s sad, but we have to live with it and make new plans. As I said in the past with [Makazole] Mapimpi and Jan-Hendrik [Wessels], it is what it is.”
Erasmus said it was up to De Jager whether he wants to appeal the decision.
“I think he will make that decision in the next day or two. He is going to stay here and help us prepare for Ireland.
“Obviously, that is a big game for us, but Italy is at hand. We would’ve loved to have Lood available for the Irish Test match.”
De Jager missed out on the World Cup in 2023 due to a heart ailment. He faced a long and sometimes grim path back to the top. A long period of rest was followed by months of hard training to recover his lost fitness.
“It is quite ironic that he has always missed big games due to injury,” Erasmus added. “I think that once in his life, in his 20-year career, he has gotten one off-field red card, never any yellow cards or foul play.
“We are sad for him. He is a guy who has gone through a lot, not just in his personal life but in his career as well, and missing out on a big Test match like Ireland next weekend is not great.
“But we have to accept it, and we won’t call up anyone else. We have 33 guys in the camp currently, and we feel that we have enough locks to cover us. A World Cup squad is also 33, and that’s even more games; this is a five-week tour.
“It’s not nice, but we will have to make plans.”
NEW IN THE APP: Official World Rugby Rankings hub! Compare team rankings side-by-side, with data going back 20 years.
Download the RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!
