Etzebeth cleared to face All Blacks on Saturday
Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth has been cleared to face New Zealand at Ellis Park on Saturday after completing all the training sessions this week.
He has been drafted onto the replacements bench for the Rugby Championship encounter.
At the same time, coach Rassie Erasmus has released four players to their Currie Cup teams to get some valuable game time this weekend.
Etzebeth, who was initially excluded from the Boks’ match-23 for the first of two Tests against their southern hemisphere arch-rivals due to an injury concern, replaces Marco van Staden on the bench.
The move offers the team specialist lock cover for the starting combination of Pieter-Steph du Toit and Ruan Nortje.
Should he get game time, the Test will mark Etzebeth’s 125th in the green and gold jersey, which will see him leapfrog Bryan Habana as the second-most capped Springbok of all time and take one step closer to Victor Matfield’s Springbok Test record of 127 caps.
“Our selection policy has always been that if a player does not train on a Monday, he will not play on Saturday, but Eben has made it through training pain-free all week, so we had to make the tough call to name him in the squad at the expense of Marco,” said Erasmus.
“There were backup options for us at lock in the initial squad, but with Eben on the bench, we have another specialist in that position on the team.”
Meanwhile, Erasmus released four players, prop Steven Kitshoff, flyhalf Manie Libbok and wingers Canan Moodie and Makazole Mapimpi, to their respective provincial unions.
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