The Springboks have called up Sharks back JP Pietersen as an injury replacement for Ruan Pienaar who was injured in South Africa’s 14-10 loss to New Zealand.
Pienaar injured his medial cruciate knee ligaments in Saturday’s Rugby Championship Test against New Zealand in Wellington and has been ruled out for the remainder of the competition.
Pietersen, a stalwart of the Springboks in the last eight seasons, will join the squad when they get together in Cape Town next Sunday evening. He was not available earlier in the competition.
“JP has always been part of our plans and did very well in June playing at outside centre,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
“We’ve got two scrumhalves in the squad in Francois Hougaard and Cobus Reinach and decided it would be better to bring in an outside back such as JP, who covers wing and outside centre.”
Pienaar will go for scans on Monday after which the exact extent the injury will be determined.
