The Springboks turn their attention to Romania for their second Pool B game of the 2023 Rugby World Cup being played in France.

On Sunday the Boks kicked off their title defence with a resounding 18-3 win over a tough and tricky Scotland in Marseille. The fifth ranked Scots were touted as a team that could derail the Boks plans in the Group of Death, however, the win has paved the way for South Africa to advance to the next round.

While the four points were vitally important, the victory could have potentially come at a high price with the lock, Eben Etzebeth, sustaining shoulder injury.

After the match the coach, Jacques Nienaber, indicated that they may only have a better prognosis on the extent of the injury on Monday.

“I haven’t even spoken to the doc. It will be assessed tomorrow. In the game they said it was a shoulder, but I’d be speculating in terms of extent.”

The Director of Rugby, Rassie Erasmus, resorted to one of his old tricks in the Test by making use of traffic lights to send signals to the players on the field. This is something the former Springbok captain developed many years ago while still coaching the Cheetahs.

Needless to say, as it is Erasmus with another clever innovation, there has once again been an outcry, especially on social media.

The Springboks deploying an old Rassie Erasmus tactic to communicate - Twitter

Nienaber defended the strategy as merely being a way to communicate, especially in noisy stadiums.

“In terms of the lights - it started when we played the French in Marseille last year. With this dome, the sound is phenomenal and you can't hear people.

“Because there are lots of channels during the match where we communicate, it's difficult in that atmosphere to talk to our support staff.

“A lot of teams will have a system to certain aspects, like, for example, how serious is the injury? Is it just a knock? That type of communication is important.

“You can use hand signals for communication. I don’t think you need any permission from World Rugby. I was at Munster and the calls were red if it’s a serious injury and you must consider a substitution, amber is 'let's give this guy five or 10 minutes to see if he’s okay' and green 'it’s okay'.”

The Boks face Romania on Sunday at 15:00 in Bordeaux.

Meanwhile, in the All Blacks camp, they’ve already sent out a SOS to the flanker, Nathan Blackadder. He comes in as an injury replacement for the winger, Emoni Narawa.

In the England camp, Tom Curry, will be appearing before a Disciplinary Committee for his somewhat hard red card against England. This hearing is set to take place on Tuesday evening.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport