Bok boss Nienaber worried about burnout as Euro club season looms large

In Durban

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said they've also got their player workloads under strict supervision as the Bok international season winds down while the franchise one in South Africa and Europe kicks into gear.

The Springboks play Argentina in their last Rugby Championship fixture for the year at Kings Park on Saturday, but will still have to embark on their end-of-year tour to Europe.

While there will be a short break for most players, there's still the matter of the United Rugby Championship that's taking place at the moment.

There's also the big matter of the Heineken Champions Cup that will definitely demand the use of Springbok players to counter the English and French threats.

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Nienaber said they do as much as they can to keep players fresh and rotate the squad, but only proper season alignment will make things easier for players.

'We do what we can'

"It's something that we'll have to manage, but I know there are players who have a cap on the number of games that they can play," Nienaber said.

"We try to manage them as best as possible, which is why the 'Bomb Squad' is so important. A guy like Steven Kitshoff is getting half of the exposure other props would be getting because of our depth.

"However, we would still like to manage their load. Someone like Pieter-Steph du Toit hasn't played in the last two games and for the Bloem Test, we almost rotated the whole squad.

"We try to manage the game load from a national team point of view, but hopefully, not to the detriment of the squad and performance."

"If we could align the seasons, that could be perfect for us, but something like that is miles above my pay-grade,"