The Springboks have called up Free State Cheetahs scrumhalf Piet van Zyl as a replacement for Jano Vermaak who was injured playing against Italy.
Vermaak, who made his Test debut in Durban on Saturday in the Springboks’ 44-10 victory over Italy, left the field in the 60th minute with a serious hamstring injury.
“Sadly Jano will not be able to play in the rest of the series and the decision was taken to replace him with Piet van Zyl,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
Van Zyl will link up with the Springbok squad on Sunday at their base in Hazyview Mpumalanga, where they will be preparing for the second Test of the series, on Saturday against Scotland at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
It will be Van Zyl’s first official involvement with the Springbok squad after he toured with the squad as one of six young guns last June.
Van Zyl is the fourth member of the young gun squad of six to make it into the senior squad. The others are Siya Kolisi, Arno Botha and Frans Malherbe.
Apart from Vermaak, there were no other serious injury concerns in the Springbok camp, apart from the usual bumps and bruises.