Springboks still likely to pick several England-based stars despite their late arrival

Despite several overseas-based stalwarts only joining up on Monday - a mere five days before the first Test against Wales at Loftus on Saturday - the Springboks look set to press several of them into action straight away.

Strict enforcement of World Rugby's Regulation 9 - the rule dictating when clubs must release their players for national duty - by the English clubs meant that men like Jasper Wiese, Andre Esterhuizen, Faf de Klerk, Vincent Koch and Lood de Jager were kept on a leash until this past weekend.

First-choice flyhalf Handre Pollard was also still in the thick of things helping his French club Montpellier win the Top14 title.

Bafflingly, only Wiese and Koch were still involved in the Premiership final between Leicester and Saracens on June 18, meaning that both men had been kicking their heels last week, while De Klerk, De Jager and Esterhuizen have been inactive even earlier.

It's in stark contrast to those players' English teammates being allowed to play in the Barbarians' exhibition against Eddie Jones' England.

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Sport24 understands that De Klerk and Koch were allowed to properly take their minds off the game last week, only returning to Johannesburg from a local hunting trip on Sunday afternoon ... as long as they didn't enter the Boks' Fourways base before then.

Nonetheless, national assistant coach Deon Davids intimated that South Africa would bank on those regulars' familiarity with the setup in including them immediately instead of testing some depth.

"We had some insightful discussions around that. We've looked at different things in terms of what we want to achieve in this first Test and what players would represent the right combinations which we