Springboks’ impressive victory over Japan overshadowed by Ox Nché’s injury setback

The Springboks’ dominant win over Japan came with a sting in the tail — a serious injury to star loosehead prop Ox Nché that threatens to derail Rassie Erasmus’ front-row plans for the rest of the tour.

Nché was on crutches after the match, having hurt his ankle and knee in a tackle, according to Erasmus, who confirmed that the Boks’ scrum enforcer will likely not be available for the rest of the tour.

After the suspension of Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Nché has become the second loosehead casualty for the team.

The 61-7 victory over Japan was as good an opening match as the world champions could have asked for ahead of facing France, Italy, Ireland and Wales. It provided much-needed game time for players like utility forward Franco Mostert, loosehead Gerhard Steenekamp, and the other Japan-based players who hadn’t featured since the Rugby Championship victory over Argentina.

It was also a strong debut for 21-year-old tighthead Zachary Porthen, while flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored a brace of tries and controlled the game well in testing weather conditions. Fullback Cheslin Kolbe also stepped up in the absence of Damian Willemse, who is expected to be available to face France on Saturday evening in Paris.

“Ox is pretty serious; I don’t think he will play the rest of the tour,” Erasmus said.

“Unfortunately, in the tackle situation, he hurt his ankle and his knee, so he’s on crutches. We are planning to replace him. We have Boan (Venter) and Gerhard, who played very well. Thomas (du Toit) is also back.

“At tighthead, we have Wilco (Louw) and Zachary, who played. If another loosehead goes down this week, we’ll be in a bit of trouble. So, we’ll probably bring in Asenathi (Ntlabakanye) and have Thomas swing between loosehead and tighthead. That’s where our minds are going, but we must get the go-ahead from the selectors.”

While Feinberg-Mngomezulu impressed again at flyhalf, Erasmus highlighted the collective effort and how several players stepped up despite having limited international minutes this season.

The Springboks scored nine tries, with braces from their starting flyhalf and winger Kurt-Lee Arendse, as the forwards laid down a physical marker in the scrums and at lineout time. Captain Siya Kolisi opened the scoring off the back of a strong maul, while the backline launched a few enterprising attacks off dominant scrums.

According to Erasmus, they did not expect the margin of victory considering Japan’s recent performances.

“We will never forget Brighton (in 2015), and we’ve only beaten them three times in our history. We could never bury them in a match, even at the 2019 World Cup. In that quarter-final, it took a rolling maul try in the second half to secure the win.

“Eddie (Jones) is a good coach, and you saw how they played against Australia last week. I didn’t expect this scoreline, particularly once the rain began and handling the ball became difficult.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the final score, but what pleased me most was how we pitched up physically and showed Japan the same respect as we would the All Blacks. Everything wasn’t perfect, but we’re proud of how we played.”