No more overseas-based players for the Springboks?

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus has said that he is unlikely to bring in more overseas-based players into his squad between now and next year's Rugby World Cup. 

Now that the World Rugby international window is currently in place six overseas-based players have joined the squad to face France in Paris.

They are Willie le Roux (Wasps, England), Faf de Klerk (Sale), Vincent Koch (Saracens), Franco Mostert (Gloucester), Francois Louw (Bath) and Cheslin Kolbe (Toulouse). In addition, 36-year-old Japan-based Gio Aplon.

Erasmus has since hinted that he may be satisfied with his current squad and altough he has his eye on a few players he might not add any other overseas-based players to his squad. 

"I do have my eyes on a few guys in key positions if we have to bring someone in," he said.

"A guy like Pat Lambie or Bismarck du Plessis, you know what you have in them, but unless we have big injuries, I don’t think we will have more overseas guys involved than what we have currently in our team.

"We have generally had about 34 or 36 players in our squad, but we are obviously keeping an eye on the World Cup where you can only take a squad of 31," he said on Thursday.

"A few guys will have to fall out, and we still have a couple of guys back home who are injured."

Erasmus' decision shuts the door on a number of other overseas-based players, including Frans Steyn (Montpellier), Marcell Coetzee (Ulster), Cobus Reinach (Northampton) and Jan Serfontein (Montpellier) among countless others.

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