Rassie Erasmus has explained why Duane Vermeulen isn’t going on the Springboks’ end-of-year tour and the selection of Johan Goosen for South Africa A.

The veteran No 8 was a glaring omission from the 35-man Bok squad named on Friday, with Jasper Wiese and Evan Roos the only two specialist eighthmen among the loose forwards.

Erasmus said the Boks had always planned to rest Vermeulen for the tour and would have done the same with Frans Steyn had he been fit.

“Some of the guys who are getting a bit older in the legs but can still make it to the World Cup … we have seen enough and know their commitment,” SA’s director of rugby added.

“We don’t think a guy like Duane needs any more experience and he has been really well managed at Ulster.

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“This is probably the perfect tour, when you’re playing No 1 [Ireland] and No 2 [France] in the world, to see some of the other youngsters, if they get an opportunity.”

Meanwhile, flyhalf Goosen had to settle for a place in the SA A squad due to a lack of game time for the Vodacom Bulls in the URC since returning from a knee injury.

Damian Willemse and Manie Libbok are the two flyhalves in the Bok squad, with youngster Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu listed as a utility back.

“The three guys we have used consistently since 2018 – Handre [Pollard], Elton [Jantjies] and Frans are not available for this tour, but Damian has done a great job at flyhalf for us this year,” said Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber.

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“When we had our discussions in February, Johan was the guy we identified as our next flyhalf if we do get an injury.

“Fortunately for us, he spent some time with us in the preparation camps before the Wales Tests and the Rugby Championship. He’s been with us on the [training] field and has helped Stokke [Mazwandile Stick] with some coaching stuff, so he has a pretty good idea about how we operate.

“Unfortunately, he’s only played a total of 160 minutes in the URC [this season] and we would have liked him to have played more.

“But we’ve got some exciting young flyhalves in South Africa who are all producing for their franchises. We are excited to see how they step up if they do get the opportunity.”

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