Northwest University Eagles captain Luann “Sumpy” Sweegers (Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus' left wing decision to call up unheralded Pumas prop Luan “Sampy” Sweegers to the next training camp comes as the world champions prepare for their season opener. seems to be just as important as finding an emergency tighthead prop. Securing a long-term replacement for the legendary France Malherbe.
The Boks' first game as world champions for the second consecutive year will be on June 22nd at Twickenham, where they will face Wales in the World Cup quarter-finals, but as this match is outside of World Rugby's international framework, coach Erasmus has no choice but to play as a front-line franchise. We have no idea which players will participate in the game. The United Rugby Championship final will be played on the same day, so I need to be able to attend that match.
After toying with the idea of playing box loosehead super-sub Ox Ntche on the right side of the scrum, Erasmus appears to have decided to cast his experiment even wider. Even better, Erasmus appears to have begun work on finding the closest possible successor to Malherbe, who has been a fixture for the Boks at tighthead prop.
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