Boks send Jantjies packing

Elton Jantjies’ international career is in the balance after he was sent home from Argentina where the Springboks are preparing for Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash against Los Pumas.

Jantjies and team dietitian Zeenat Simjee were ordered to return home after reports of a hotel tryst while the team was preparing for their match against the All Blacks in Mbombela last month.

A Sunday newspaper reported the pair as having spent a quarrelsome time at a guest house where a bill was left unpaid.

“The Springbok management are aware of reports regarding Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies and team dietitian Zeenat Simjee between the training camp in Sabie and the Test match against New Zealand in Mbombela earlier this year,” SA Rugby said in a statement.

“No team protocols were breached, but the individuals are returning to SA to attend to these personal reports and to eliminate any distractions to the team’s preparations for the Test against Argentina,” the statement continued.

The events that unfolded in the lowveld were not the first recent infraction by Jantjies.

A criminal case was provisionally withdrawn against Jantjies in June. The flyhalf was charged with malicious damage to property and contravening the Civil Aviation Act.

It was alleged he caused damage on an Emirates flight en route to Johannesburg.

While those proceedings were ongoing Springbok team management opted to keep him in the squad. He started the first Test against Wales but his lack of game time showed as he struggled in the first half before being substituted under the cover of the halftime break.

Damian Willemse moved to flyhalf for the remainder of that match and helped spark the Springboks to life in their come-from-behind victory.

Jantjies was retained in the squad as backup flyhalf but his on-field services were not required in the second of two Tests in Australia when Willemse again took charge.

Willemse again delivered a smart, composed performance.

While Willemse, who has played fullback and inside centre for the Boks, can easily act as backup to Pollard when the occasion demands, Jantjies’s future is far more uncertain.