Once tipped as South Africa’s next great scrumhalf has the chance to remind Rassie Erasmus of his Test pedigree in the URC final against Leinster

Papier’s shot at Bok redemption

Once tipped as South Africa’s next great scrumhalf has the chance to remind Rassie Erasmus of his Test pedigree in the URC final against Leinster, writes MARK KEOHANE.

Writing for TimesLIVE, Keohane says Saturday’s URC decider in Dublin offers Papier the perfect platform to force his way back into Springbok contention – seven years after earning his last cap.

Papier will start for the Bulls at Croke Park against a full-strength Leinster side packed with Irish internationals and bolstered by RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett. While Leinster are favourites, Keohane notes the Bulls have won three of the last five encounters – with Papier key in last week’s semi-final win over the Sharks.

“Papier broke the game open early on in setting up winger Sebastian de Klerk and was electric for much of the match,” he writes. “A big day in Dublin could see him added to the Bok mix and leapfrog those selected.”

Papier has been in sublime form this season, starting 16 of 18 URC matches, beating 18 defenders, making seven clean breaks, seven offloads and 138 kicks for over 3600 metres – all while conceding just four penalties.

Keohane argues another standout performance in the final could bring things full circle for the 28-year-old, who was first picked by Erasmus in 2018 and remains “loyal to a province he adopted when moving from Darling to Pretoria as a 15-year-old”.

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No personal issue with Evan Roos’: Rassie Erasmus rules out Bulls for Springboks-Barbarians clash, Juarno Augustus injured

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus will be wearing blue on Saturday when the Bulls play Leinster in the United Rugby Championship final, but won’t pick any of Jake White’s men for the season opener against the Barbarians on June 28 in Cape Town.

Erasmus also confirmed that it is unlikely that injured Bulls No 8 Cameron Hanekom will play this year, and the same goes for props Frans Malherbe and Trevor Nyakane, and utility forward Deon Fourie.

The Bok boss added that he was disappointed that Juarno Augustus will not be joining the squad for the foreseeable future because of a rib injury he picked up playing for Northampton.

The former World Junior Player of the Year had been in line for a Springbok debut after a long apprenticeship in English rugby.

“It will be great if the Bulls can pull it off,” Erasmus said. “There are at least 13 Bulls players that are either already Boks or are in our plans, and if they join our camp as champions, it will be a nice boost.

“I’m good friends with (Leinster defence) coach Jacques Nienaber, but I will be cheering for the Bulls.

“Jake has done us some favours with how he has moved guys around positions, like Jan-Hendrik Wessels (in the front row), and Ruan Nortjé (lock and flank).

“Then you have a guy like (wing) Sebastian de Klerk knocking hard on the door, while (scrumhalf) Embrose Papier has hit form and is showing he is very much Springbok material.”

Erasmus explained that he would not pick the Bulls players for the Barbarians game because they will join the camp late after their arrival back from Dublin, and won’t be able to participate in sufficient training sessions before that match.

The coach cleared up the speculation around Stormers No 8 Evan Roos, whom he initially ignored before calling him up as a replacement for the injured Hanekom.

“I read in the media that it must be because of a personal issue that I didn’t pick Evan. That is not true, and you can ask Evan himself. It was nothing like that,” Erasmus said.

“In my opinion, he just wasn’t playing as well as the other number eights, and that doesn’t mean he was playing badly.

“Sometimes you have guys of Springbok standard, like Evan, but other guys are ahead of them, or we have guys that can fit into the position in question.

“For instance, we have Kwagga Smith who can play number eight. It can also be a case of the guys we pick fit in better with what we are trying to do.”

Looking ahead to the Barbarians match, Erasmus said it was a difficult game to prepare for.

“We want to start our season on the right foot, but we won’t have all of our players.

“Besides the Bulls, we have quite a long list of walking wounded that we want to have ready for the Italy series.

“The Barbarians game is a good opportunity to use our guys from Japan – the likes of Jesse Kriel, Faf de Klerk, Damian de Allende, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cheslin Kolbe and Macolm Marx – because they have not had a lot of rugby for a while.

“It is not a Test match, but we also have to make sure the team is good enough. We don’t want a hiding in our first game.

“I have coached the Barbarians before. They get together on the Sunday, and while they will all be talented players, we can’t do any analysis on them.

“The one thing we know is that they will play with no pressure. That makes them dangerous.”

The list of players currently injured but expected back fairly soon includes Gerhard Steenekamp, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Ben-Jason Dixon, Augustus, Lukhanyo Am, Jasper Wiese, Grant Williams, Damian Willemse and Makazole Mapimpi.

Erasmus added that further complications around the start of the season will be the late arrival in the camp of two players involved in Saturday’s English Premiership final, Thomas du Toit (Bath) and Handré Pollard (Leicester).