{"id":549484,"date":"2026-07-29T11:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549484\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:31:09","slug":"rassie-erasmus-drops-selection-hints-for-argentina-clash-after-double-springboks-blow-it-is-not-ideal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549484\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus drops selection hints for Argentina clash after double Springboks blow: ‘It is not ideal’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rassie Erasmus has confirmed that just two of the current Springboks<\/a> squad members will not be available to face Argentina next weekend in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

The clash against Los Pumas will be a crucial fixture for South Africa ahead of the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series against the All Blacks in August and September.<\/p>\n

Several players will be returning from injury, and the clash provides the opportunity for many of those stars to get some game time, with Erasmus recalling 10 players to his squad after the Nations Championship matches.<\/p>\n

While 43 players were initially named in the squad, Ntuthuko\u00a0Mchunu\u2019s recall meant that number grew by one, and the latest injury update explains the Stormers loosehead\u2019s inclusion, with the head coach confirming that star prop Ox Nche won\u2019t be available for the one-off match against Argentina.<\/p>\n

Double injury blow for the Springboks<\/p>\n

Nche is one of just two players who have not been cleared to face Los Pumas and is joined on the sidelines by double World Cup-winning lock Franco Mostert. With Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager fit-again and with fellow second-rowers and utility forwards Ruan Nortje, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Vincent Tshituka, Ben-Jason Dixon, Cobus Wiese and Elrigh Louw also in the squad, there was no need for Erasmus to add further second-rower cover for Mostert.<\/p>\n

Erasmus also revealed that many of the Springboks<\/a> who didn\u2019t feature in the Nations Championship<\/a> fixtures in July or sustained injuries in that period are likely to feature in the clash against Los Pumas<\/a> next weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only two guys who won\u2019t be available due to longer-term injuries, and they are Ox Nche and Franco Mostert,\u201d said Erasmus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from them, everyone is ready to play. I wouldn\u2019t say it is ideal (that they are all returning from injury now). We would have liked the guys not to be injured and to have been able to manage their time right from the start.<\/p>\n

Eben Etzebeth explains how his career as a winger ended and recalls his infamous \u2018scuffles\u2019 versus the Wallabies and Wales<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe same applied to Andr\u00e9 (Esterhuizen), Eben (Etzebeth), Wilco (Louw) and Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu), but this game is a really good opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cArgentina are a quality team, and you\u2019ll quickly see who is ready to play against New Zealand two weeks later. That said, this match wasn\u2019t planned with that reason in mind \u2013 it was always about honouring our relationship with Argentina, but yes, most of those guys will be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks legend: Cheslin Kolbe is up there as \u2018one of the greatest players of all-time\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Bigger picture beyond 2026<\/p>\n

The Bok squad assembled in Johannesburg on Sunday and had two days of training, with Wednesday being an off day before they wrapped up their on-field preparations on Thursday. The group will then return home for a few days, while the squad travelling to Argentina \u2013 which will be announced on Saturday \u2013 will travel to South America in two different groups that day.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the players will return to their training base in Johannesburg to begin their preparations for the four-Test series against the All Blacks, SA Rugby confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, we want to beat Argentina \u2013 just like every other team, we want to win every Test match we play,\u201d Erasmus added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s the bigger picture, the Rugby World Cup, which is close to a year away, but you also have to respect the team you play next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Loose Pass: \u2018Abhorrent\u2019 amount of referee abuse in New Zealand and concussion case enters \u2018unprecedented territory\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus has confirmed that just two of the current Springboks squad members will not be available to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8018,1463,1464,111,43,139,69,1468,6327,1466,213],"class_list":["post-549484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rassie-erasmus","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}