Springbok hammer blow: Ox Nche possibly out of tour

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus confirmed everyone’s worst fears when he admitted that powerful loosehead prop Ox Nche’s end-of-year-tour may be over, after he suffered an ugly-looking injury in the Boks’ 61-7 thumping of Japan at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday.

Nche went down in the 18^th minute of the game, when he fell over a Japanese player at a ruck, injuring his ankle and knee, and Erasmus said the player was on crutches and still to be evaluated, but that it didn’t look good.

It is a hammer blow for the Boks, with four more matches remaining on tour, two of them huge encounters against France, next weekend in Paris, and Ireland on November 22 in Dublin.

Gerhard Steenekamp, who returned from his own injury problems that last saw him play for the Boks against Wales on last year’s end-of-year-tour, replaced Nche and will likely take over as the frontline loosehead going forward.

Boan Venter will likely come onto the bench, while Thomas du Toit, who wasn’t available against Japan, will cover both tighthead and loosehead going forward, but will likely play primarily as a tighthead.

Tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye, who has not featured for the Boks since his adverse drugs finding saw him left out of the squad that left for New Zealand during the Rugby Championship, is set to be called up, with him still available to play until his hearing is held next month.

Pretty serious

“It is pretty serious. I don’t think he (Nche) will play for the rest of this tour. In the tackle situation he injured his ankle and his knee. He’s on crutches now and I don’t think we will have him for the rest of this tour,” said a bleak-sounding Erasmus at the post match presser.

“We are planning to replace him. We obviously have Boan and Gerhard, who I thought played very well (as the fit looseheads). Then Thomas is back and we obviously have Wilco (Louw) and Zach (Porthen) (as the tightheads).

“But if another loosehead goes down in the week we will be in a bit of trouble. So we will probably get in Asenathi. I just have to talk to the selectors first, but I think Asenathi will come in, and Thomas will swing between tighthead and loosehead for us.”

Steenekamp has been solid for the Bulls this season on his return from injury, and looked good for the Boks against Japan, while Venter has also impressed since making his international debut earlier this year in July.

But losing Nche, who is arguably the best loosehead prop in the world, will be felt, and it is now up to the others to make the step up and try and soften the blow of losing such a destructive scrummager.

The call-up of Ntlabakanye is an obvious one, as he is one of two props on the Bok standby list, alongside Neethling Fouche, but is already in England as he played for the invitational Barbarians against the All Blacks XV in Brentford on Saturday.