Erasmus adamant Pollard won't play against Ireland, Etzebeth in contention

Out-half Handre Pollard will not play for South Africa against Ireland, says Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, while lock Eben Etzebeth is on course for the World Cup Pool B clash in Paris on Saturday.

Pollard was initially left out of their original 33-man squad through injury but was recalled over the weekend as a replacement for hooker Malcolm Marx, who is out of the tournament after suffering a knee injury in training.

Pollard played for Leicester Tigers in a friendly against Sale on Friday and only hooked up with the world champions earlier today.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon on a Zoom call, the former Munster boss said: "No, he will definitely not be selected for this week apart from if we get two or three injuries."

"He's just joined us today, he's just played his first 40 minutes in 14/15 weeks for Leicester on Friday and that was the issue why we didn't bring him to the World Cup, because there was a lot of 'return to training' that wasn't done eventually and then 'return to play' only happened on Friday night.

"It's good to have him here, he must get up to speed with the intensity of our training sessions, slot in nicely.

"We've only played two games at this World Cup, I'm sure at some stage we'll have him back.

"But not this weekend."

On influential lock Etzebeth, who was withdrawn after 26 minutes of the win over Scotland with a shoulder injury and missed the match against Romania, forwards coach Deon Davids issued a positive update.

"In the previous press conferences we mentioned Eben was out for 7-10 days," he said,

"It's now seven. He reacted well last week with his return to training so, yes, he will be in contention for this week."

Meanwhile, 50-year-old Erasmus, who joined the Springboks