Springboks forced into late change for Wallabies as Kitshoff replaces Nche

The Springboks have made a late change to their team for Saturday's opening Rugby Championship Test against the Wallabies in Pretoria with prop Steven Kitshoff replacing Ox Nche, who suffered an injury to his pectoral muscle on Tuesday. 

Nche is expected to be out of action for several weeks, which has ruled him out of the southern hemisphere showpiece. 

As a result, Kitshoff was withdrawn at the last minute on Tuesday from the early travelling squad to Auckland for next week’s clash against the All Blacks and drafted directly into the starting line-up for the Wallabies encounter at Loftus Versfeld. 

15 Willie le Roux, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Duane Vermeulen (captain), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff

Substitutes: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Evan Roos, 21 Deon Fourie, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Damian Willemse

Former Junior Springbok prop Gerhard Steenekamp has been drafted into the national squad, and had his first training session with the team on Wednesday. The talented 26-year-old will travel to New Zealand on Wednesday night to train with the players who departed on Tuesday. 

Experienced prop Trevor Nyakane is also training with the squad in Pretoria and will continue to serve as back-up cover with Elton Jantjies (flyhalf) and Herschel Jantjies (scrumhalf) for the Australia Test. 

“It’s never ideal to lose a player to injury days before an important Test match, but unfortunately it’s part of the game,” said Bok coach Jacques Nienaber. 

“We are particularly sad for Ox because he’s been working very hard in the