Bok coach Nienaber defends Elton Jantjies first-half horror show

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber defended Elton Jantjies' errant performance in South Africa's 32-29 win against Wales at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, saying ring-rust played a huge role in his display.

Jantjies was given a vote of confidence to start ahead of Handre Pollard for the Test, but didn't distinguish himself well with the boot and in general play.

He missed two straight-forward penalties, overcooked a touch-finder, and wasn't at the races with his match-management.

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Nienaber came to Jantjies's defence, saying the 31-year-old may be one of his experienced heads, but didn't have proper game time under the saddle.

Jantjies plays for the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes, but a shoulder injury, along with his team's poor showing in the league, cut his action time short.

"We've got a couple of boxes to tick, but we've selected the team the way we did. Elton has played less than 30 minutes in the year," Nienaber said.

"He did his shoulder and obviously went through his rehab, but his club in Japan didn't get to the final, so there weren't any games to expose him to.

"The only exposure he had for the better part of the year was training, so we needed to get him some games and it was always going to take some time for a guy who has been out for a while.

"Fortunately for us, he got 40 minutes under the belt, but even if you train guys as much as you want and put them into contact sessions, there's no pressure there.

"It was good for us to expose him to Test rugby."

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Nienaber refused to be pressed into saying Jantjies's poor first-half showing was the reason he didn't appear