Fourie returns but Pretorius still out

Jaque Fourie has returned to the Springbok squad and was busy with a gym assessment on Monday afternoon which will determine whether he is available to play in the second test against England in Pretoria on Saturday.

Also back in the mix after going home last week were wings Akona Ndungane and JP Pietersen, the latter having recovered from injury, while AJ Venter has returned early from his honeymoon and joined his teammates in getting stuck in during a training session at St Stithians on Monday afternoon.

Also in the thick of it was Luke Watson, who retains his place in what is now a 35 man squad. He is there at the expense of Wikus van Heerden, who was pivotal part of the loose trio that helped the Bulls to an historic first Super 14. Watson was joined in the practice by his Stormers teammate Joe van Niekerk, who is recovering a minor back injury.

The bad news though is that Fourie’s Lions teammate Andre Pretorius is still out with a buttocks injury, while big Os du Randt was having ice applied to his injured quadriceps muscle as he watched the practice from the sidelines.

Most of the players who played in the 58-10 win over England in the first test did not train on Monday, so there was no early indication of what the selection will look like for Loftus. However, considering which players are back and the status of Du Randt, it would appear that White will stick to his post-match promise to keep changes to a minimum.

“AJ is back from his honeymoon, which shows his commitment, but I am not sure if he brought the guys any wedding cake, so he might be in trouble for that,” quipped team manager Zola Yeye.

“Andre (Pretorius) will not be back this week, but Jaque (Fourie) is in the gym and an assessment will be made on his readiness.”

It will be interesting to see what White does on the wing now that Pietersen, the top try-scorer in the Super 14, is back in the group. Ashwin Willemse made a solid return to the side in Bloemfontein and you would imagine White would want him to build on that by playing him again, but Pietersen s going to be a hard man to leave out on current form.

There again, he has played most of his rugby for the Sharks on the left wing, and there is no question that Bryan Habana deserves to continue there after his devastating performance both against England last Saturday and for the Bulls against the Sharks in the Super 14 final.