Boks make six changes to squad for England Test

Doha — The Springboks have been forced into six squad changes for Saturday’s Test against England after English and French-based players were forced to rejoin their clubs because the clash falls outside the international test window.

André Esterhuizen (Harlequins), Vincent Koch (Stade Francaise), Cheslin Kolbe (Toulon), Trevor Nyakane (Racing 92), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) and Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) returned to their clubs after Saturday’s 63-21 win over Italy in Genoa.

They will be replaced by Thomas du Toit, Ntuthuko Mchunu (both props), Marco van Staden (flanker), Johan Goosen (flyhalf) and Grant Williams (scrumhalf) while Bulls wing Canan Moodie has recovered from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the first three Tests of the tour against Ireland, France and Italy and will also join up with the squad in London.

“The players who will join us from the SA A team all put up their hands in the midweek games and we are delighted to have them in the mix this week, while Canan showed what he can do at Test level and I am sure he will be delighted to be back in the squad,” said coach Jacques Nienaber.

“As we said from the outset, we wanted as many players as possible to get game time on this tour as we look ahead to the Rugby World Cup next year, and we believe the players and the team will benefit from this in the next few months.”

Reuters