By Brenden Nel
The Springboks are set to revert to their strongest line-up ahead of the third test against Wales in Cape Town on Saturday, but one player who won’t be there is Andre Esterhuizen.
Assistant coach Deon Davids revealed that Esterhuizen was ruled out with a broken hand and would play no part in selection for the test, and is likely to be out for at least four weeks as he recovers from the injury.
The injury means that Damian de Allende is set to return to the number 12 jersey, and Damian Willemse will likely be on the bench to cover the midfield when the squad is selected for Saturday’s tour decider.
After losing the second test in the dying minutes on Saturday, Davids said the Boks would do no more experimenting as they look to win the series in the final match this weekend.
“It is always awful to lose in a Springbok jersey, that is something you don’t ever want. But the team we selected last week was part of a bigger picture and that was well-communicated to the squad.
“We want to win every game we play. Going into this game, which is a final, we also know that the World Cup is about finals. Having seen the 42 players in the squad under pressure in a test match gives us the opportunity to make a selection based on the roadmaps of the players.
“With that in mind, we will select what we think is the best possible side to give us the result on Saturday.”
The Bok team for the series decider is likely to resemble the team from the first test at Loftus Versfeld, with Pieter-Steph du Toit likely to return to the starting line-up at flank while it will be an interesting choice at No 8 between Jasper Wiese, who was man of the match in that game, Evan Roos and Kwagga Smith.
Handre Pollard is likely to resume his vice-captaincy role and Siya Kolisi is likely to return to the captaincy.
The team will be named on Tuesday afternoon.