Rassie Erasmus has provided an injury update following the Springboks’ 66-7 victory over Italy in the Nations Championship clash in Turin.

The head coach was forced to make a late change before the match, with lock Salmaan Moerat withdrawing from the matchday 23 and was subsequently replaced by Lood de Jager with Franco Mostert added to the bench.

Springboks injury update

During the match, Thomas du Toit and Morne van den Berg were temporarily replaced to tend to gashes on their faces while flanker Paul de Villiers and fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu left the pitch to undertake head injury assessments.

Speaking after the victory, Erasmus revealed that Moerat was the only major injury concern, with the second rower struggling with back spasms earlier in the week. The 28-year-old forward was set to earn his first Test cap of 2026 after injuries meant that he missed both the July Nations Championship matches and the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

“Salmaan had a little bit of a back spasm on Thursday, but we thought it would clear up,” said the Springboks boss.

“He looked good at the captain’s practice, but unfortunately in the warm-up he got more back spasms, so hopefully it’s not too serious. He’s the only casualty we have from the game. I don’t think there are any other serious injuries.”

Can’t fault the performance

South Africa raced into a 45-0 half-time lead after scoring six tries in an emphatic 40 minutes at the home of Juventus. However, the Azzurri bounced back in the second half and were far more competitive even when Erasmus emptied his bench. Erasmus wasn’t overly concerned by the second-half performance, though.

“It’s always almost impossible to put 80 minutes 100% together,” he said.

“We still scored another 20 points in the second, but we don’t think that Italy is a bad team. They are a proud team, and they started running the ball from everywhere in the second half because they were down 45 points.

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“We made some changes which we wanted to see, and then you do lose a little bit of rhythm, but I think we can’t fault the guys. If we score 66 points in a match, we can’t nitpick too much.”

The result means that the Springboks remain on the top of the Southern Hemisphere standings of the Nations Championship, as they have a superior points difference over New Zealand who are the only other unbeaten team remaining the tournament.

The team will depart for Paris later on Saturday evening, where they will turn their focus to Friday’s Test against France at the Stade de France. That will be followed by a clash with Ireland in Dublin before the Finals’ Weekend at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.