Commenting on the call-up of Boan Venter, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was confident that he was a good fit for the team, and his selection was not to prevent Scotland from selecting Venter.
“Boan comes through the Toyota Cheetahs ranks and the junior structures in South Africa, and he has also been very consistent for Edinburgh. He knows what to expect from a scrummaging, mauling, and lineout perspective, so we are pretty sure he’ll make it.
“We are aware that he could have qualified for Scotland, but for us it’s not a case of denying opportunities to players abroad. We select the best players we can, and with Gerhard Steenekamp and Ntutuko Mchunu nursing injuries, he was the next best player on our radar.”
In 2017, Venter was named in the Junior Springboks training squad ahead of the World Rugby U20 Championship in Georgia and posted impressive performances for the Toyota Free State XV in the 2018 SuperSport Rugby Challenge. A year later, he made his breakthrough in the 2019/20 Guinness PRO14 season, featuring in all 13 matches of the South African side’s much-improved, albeit Covid-curtailed, campaign.
Venter joined Edinburgh from the Cheetahs in February 2021 and was the first prop to score a hat-trick for Edinburgh in the professional era, bagging a treble of tries against Ospreys at Swansea.com Stadium in January 2022. He earned his 50th cap for Edinburgh against Connacht in the 2023/24 season.