Lions series is not at risk

The Springbok camp was rocked by three positive Covid tests yesterday, but director of rugby Rassie Erasmus (above) said the notion that this would put the two Tests against Georgia and the entire British and Irish Lions tour in doubt was incorrect.

Erasmus revealed that Durban-based wing Sbu Nkosi, tighthead prop Vincent Koch of Saracens and scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, who has already had Covid, were the three players who tested positive when the squad gathered at their Johannesburg hotel.

All three players are asymptomatic but training yesterday was cancelled as a precautionary measure.

“We’ve been in camp for three weeks without any problems, but this was the first time everyone really assembled, the first time we’ve had all squad members with guys coming in from all over. The three guys who tested positive have to be confined as we fall in now with British and Irish Lions tour protocols. We have advised the tour medical committee and now we wait for the next step.

“But it’s not a big worry for us, I’m fairly confident these are isolated cases, those players have just been unlucky. We’ve followed very strict protocols at our hotel, we weren’t allowed to be in one room before testing and the guys could not go to their own rooms for five to seven hours until they got the results – just to make sure that contacts are minimal.

“I don’t think the Georgia game on Friday is in any doubt, we have an extended squad of 45 especially for this very reason. We will never not have enough players. We are able to draft players in because they are on testing regimes with their provinces,” Erasmus said yesterday.

While the positive tests have spiked the Springboks’ plans, most of the ground work for the first Test against Georgia will already have been laid down and coach Jacques Nienaber said the Springboks had to be adaptable in these harrowing times.