Erasmus optimistic amid Covid scare

Springbok director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, seems optimistic that South Africa’s scheduled game against Georgia will go ahead on Friday despite three members of the squad testing positive for Covid-19. 

“The decision will be made externally and the Georgians come in today (Sunday) but I don’t think the game will be impacted by what has happened,” Erasmus said in a report in iol.co.za.  

“It is why we have 45 guys in camp — so that we will never be in a situation where we don’t have enough players to play a match. To play against Georgia we need to have 23 players who test negative for Covid. If it came to it, we would go outside the current Bok group if we had to, but that shouldn’t be necessary. 

“We need to see this in perspective. This is the first time myself and Jacques are experiencing something like this, but our franchise teams and many of the international teams have experienced it. For instance, England assistant coach Matt Proudfoot tested positive and he and England head coach Eddie Jones had to isolate last year, and Fiji also had a problem. It is just a reality of the times we are living in.”