Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has rubbished rumours that there was a personal issue between the Springboks coach and Evan Roos. Erasmus said that Roos' form for the Stormers and the Springboks' depth in his position was the deciding factor.
"It wouldn’t be nice to talk about team selection, but I saw what people wrote and said about it. It is definitely not a personal issue. Everyone has differences on who is playing well and who is not playing well. Evan is now in the squad because Cameron is injured and because Juarno is also out. In our opinion, Evan wasn’t in better form than those players. That is normally the reason a player doesn’t get selected."
"It is not to say Roos is not Springbok level or can’t play Springbok rugby. It’s just that Kwagga, Cameron, Juarno and Siya can all play eight."
"A guy can also be good enough, but there are just two or three other guys who we think fit better into what we are trying to do as a Springbok team. How we attack, how we defend, what we do in lineouts, and so on. Maybe he just doesn’t fit that plan, or the other guys are a bit more settled."
Erasmus said the inclusion of Roos was due to the hamstring injury of Cameron Hanekom against the Hollywoodbets Sharks and an unspecified injury of Juarno Augustus.
"It is a blow not to have Juarno with us and available as we wanted to get him involved and have a look at him; he has played for a team that has won titles."
"Juarno was World Junior Player of the Year back in I think it was 2017, but he is not a laaitie anymore. I am not completely sure what his injury is, but I believe it is something to do with his back. Unfortunately, he is between two clubs. He is moving from Northampton Saints and Ulster. So we couldn’t bring him in ourselves for rehab, so unfortunately, he is not with us now and won’t be playing for us against the Barbarians or Italy."
"Evan was the next guy in when all those guys got injured. I contacted him on Saturday evening when I saw Cameron was injured through Charles Wessels and said, listen, you’re flying tomorrow to join the Springbok squad.”
