No major injury concerns in Bok camp ahead of France Test, as Rassie gives update on Moerat

The Boks boss expressed his satisfaction with the performance against Italy. Salmaan Moerat was withdrawn from the Springbok team just before their Nations Championship match against Italy in Turin on Saturday, after experiencing back spasms in the warmup before the world champions smashed their hosts 66-7 at the Allianz Stadium in Italy. Lock Moerat was replaced in the starting lineup by Lood de Jager, with Franco Mostert taking his spot on the bench, as the Boks went on to clinch a big win and make a perfect start to their end-of-year-tour. Speaking after the match, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus explained that Moerat had felt the spasms in the week, but they thought they had cleared up. He is the only injury concern going into the rest of the tour. “There are no other injuries. Salmaan’s got back spasms. He felt them on Thursday, but we thought it would clear up and he looked good at the captain’s run. But unfortunately in the warm-up, he got more back spasms,” explained Erasmus. “So hopefully it’s not too serious. He’s the only casualty we had in the game. I don’t think there are any other serious injuries.” Brilliant first half The Boks produced a brilliant first half effort in Turin to take a 45-0 lead after 33 minutes, which they took into the break, but a scrappy second half and an improved showing from the hosts meant the Boks could only add three more tries to the six they scored in the first 40, while also conceding one. “I think it’s almost impossible to put a 100% performance together over 80 minutes. We can’t say we are not happy with the second half, we got 45 points in the first half and added another 21 points in the second,” said Erasmus. “We don’t think Italy is a bad team. They are a proud team and they started running the ball from everywhere, obviously because they were down by 45 points. We made some changes that we wanted to see and then you do lose a little bit of rhythm. “But I don’t think you can really fault the guys. If you win 66-7 we can’t start nitpicking stuff in the second half. Obviously it wasn’t perfect, but it was proper.” Straight after the game the Boks immediately hopped on a flight to Paris as it is a short week for them before they take on their French hosts in a late game on Friday night. The Boks then finish their Nations Championship pool phase with a match against Ireland in Dublin, before moving onto Twickenham in London for the Finals Weekend at the end of the month.