Boks encounter travel day en route to Ireland

It has been confirmed that the main Springbok touring group have arrived in Dublin late on Sunday night after their flight from Johannesburg to Dubai en route to Dublin was delayed by close to five hours, which resulted in a lengthy layover in Dubai before the Boks flew to Dublin.

The travelling squad joined the other 11 players (the Stormers URC players, and the European and UK-based players) who arrived in Dublin on Sunday afternoon, while Cheslin Kolbe will join the team on Monday morning following Toulon’s 27-26 defeat against Bordeaux on Sunday night.

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The Springbok coaches were forced to make a few changes to their Monday programme due to the flight delay to ensure that the players recover sufficiently from the long journey to Dublin, but fortunately for Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, the timely planning allowed the rugby programme for the day to remain intact.

“We are pleased to be in Dublin, and thanks to the swift planning from our operations team following the announcement that our flight to Dubai was delayed and the resultant longer layover in Dubai, we were able to ensure that the players remained as comfortable as possible throughout the journey,” said Erasmus. “The entire squad with the exception of the injured players and Cheslin reported for duty in Dublin on Sunday night and despite a few changes to our programme, we have a full training day on Monday.”

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Nienaber added that efficient planning and the fact that Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones has been in Dublin since late last week made matters simpler for the rest of the coaching team by ensuring that they maximised the time with the 11 players who arrived earlier at the team hotel on Sunday.

“We were very fortunate that Felix joined the squad on Sunday as he had a golden opportunity to work with the DHL Stormers and overseas-based players on some detail while the rest of us were travelling,” said Nienaber. “We allowed the players additional recovery time on Monday morning to ensure that they are fresh when we take the field in our afternoon training session so we can leap straight into the thick of things.

“This is a massive Test for us as Ireland are the No 1 team in the world and we are also facing them in the pool stages of next year’s Rugby World Cup, so every minute of preparation time on and off the field counts.”

Meanwhile, Erasmus and Nienaber have delayed the call-up of wing Sbu Nkosi and flank Marco van Staden until the results of medical scans are available following rib injuries suffered by the pair in the United Rugby Championship on Sunday.

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Nienaber will announce his matchday squad to face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday.

ORIGINAL BOKS SQUAD:

Props: Thomas du Toit (Cell C Sharks), Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers), Vincent Koch (unattached), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Ox Nche (Cell C Sharks), Trevor Nyakane (Racing 92)

Hookers: Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks)

Locks: Lood de Jager (Wild Knights), Eben Etzebeth (Cell C Sharks), Jason Jenkins (Leinster), Salmaan Moerat, Marvin Orie (both DHL Stormers)

Loose forwards: Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), Siya Kolisi (Cell C Sharks), Evan Roos (DHL Stormers), Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls), Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers)

Utility forwards: Deon Fourie (DHL Stormers), Franco Mostert (Honda Heat)

Scrumhalves: Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles), Jaden Hendrikse (Cell C Sharks), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier)

Flyhalves: Manie Libbok, Damian Willemse (both DHL Stormers)

Centres: Damian de Allende (Wild Knights), Andre Esterhuizen (Harlequins), Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles)

Outside backs: Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz), Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks), Sbu Nkosi (Vodacom Bulls)

Utility backs: Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls), Cheslin Kolbe (Toulon), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers)

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