Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber says Elton Jantjies needs game time, after the flyhalf’s swak performance against Wales on Saturday.
The Springboks won the first of three Tests 32-29 thanks to a last-minute Damian Willemse penalty conversion.
But Nienaber and his team could easily have been on the wrong end of the result, after trailing 18-3 at the break.
Jantjies was die groot sondebok in that first half and was replaced at the break, with Willemse switching from fullback to flyhalf, with Willie le Roux coming in at the back of the line.
Having missed a penalty conversion in the 13th minute, another in the 21st minute, before kicking the ball dead from a penalty three minutes later, Jantjies also failed to collect a long lineout throw from Wales which led to Louw Reece-Zammit’s second try in the 32nd minute.
Still, Nienaber says: “Elton, I think he played probably fewer than 30 minutes in the year. He [injured] his shoulder, went through rehab and then his Japan club didn’t make it to the final, so there weren’t any games to expose him to.
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“The only exposure he had probably the whole year was at training. We needed to get him in some games and it will always take time for a guy who has been out for such a long time.
“Lucky for us he got 40 minutes under the belt…”
He adds of replacing the pivot at the break: “The plan is always to take a guy off whenever we feel he’s given everything. Once we feel they’ve done their job and what we wanted to see, we sub him off…
“It was good, he got through 40 minutes and he’ll be better next week.”
After winning the first of three Tests, the Springboks next host Wales in Bloemfontein this week.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za