Latest Boks news: Siya takes up ‘coaching role’, Sacha undergoes surgery

Rising Springbok star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has gone under the knife due to a troubling knee injury, while captain Siya Kolisi is available for the Boks’ final Test of the Rugby Championship, but will be taking on a coaching role during this weekend’s match against Argentina in Santiago.

Coach Rassie Erasmus was addressing the media at the team announcement press conference on Tuesday when he confirmed that Feinberg-Mngomezulu would be ruled out for at least the next month, after he apparently hid his injury ahead of the first All Blacks Test at Ellis Park.

Despite carrying the knock, he featured off the bench in the second All Blacks Test at the Cape Town Stadium, and he will now be out of the Boks’ final Rugby Championship Test, and the start of the Stormers’ URC campaign.

“Sacha will only be ready for the end-of-year tour. He injured his knee before the first Test against the All Blacks and he played in that game,” said Erasmus.

“The next week on the Wednesday, I asked him why he was limping and he said he injured his knee last week. I wanted to pull him out of that team because he was limping, on the field even.

“And that’s what our players must understand. We have respect for everybody, but we must be honest when it comes to injuries. Nobody who’s got an injury and 80% ready, is better than a Springbok who has no injuries and is 100% ready.

“So Sacha is lucky that we won those Test matches because he gambled a bit. He is having the operation now. I’m not sure exactly what is wrong with the knee but he will only be ready in four and a half weeks.”

Kolisi doubt

Feinberg-Mngomezulu wasn’t the only ‘injured’ Bok playing in the match in Cape Town, after Kolisi suffered a facial fracture in the first Test, but was cleared to play after the doctors decided to delay resetting his broken nose until after the competition.

Erasmus was thus asked if Kolisi was still fit, considering he made the trip to Argentina but was left out of the match 23 for Saturday’s match, with the coach explaining he was never in line to play, and he would be taking up a different role this weekend, in the coach’s box.

“Siya was brought here not to play, but as standby, if someone gets injured. He is also helping to prepare the team off the field while preparing for this important game. So it was always the plan that he wouldn’t play,” explained Erasmus.

“Siya can play in Mbombela next week and then he can have a reset so he will have it fixed after Mbombela.

“The one thing we also want to do is get Siya in the coach’s box. We have Duane on the side (of the field) who relays the messages to Siya and the decision makers on the field.

“But he (Kolisi) actually doesn’t know what is happening in that coach’s box so we want to give him a feel of how we get to a decision or how we send a message down so that he understands the whole process.

“Two years ago Duane had a better understanding of how to interpret information he received and we hope to do the same with Siya this week.”