Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has called up five players to his squad ahead of next weekend’s clash with Portugal in Bloemfontein, with the 41-man group featuring seven uncapped players.

Franco Mostert (lock) and Edwill van der Merwe (winger) will not be considered for selection due to injuries, with the extent of their respective knocks set to be confirmed on Monday, while experienced centre Damian de Allende will leave the camp due to personal reasons.

Capped duo Elrigh Louw (back-row) and Ntuthuko Mchunu (prop) and the uncapped trio of Quan Horn (full-back), Andre-Hugo Venter (hooker) and Ruan Venter (back-row) – who attended the Bok alignment camps earlier this year – joined the current group of players, including eight of the nine players who represented their respective provinces in the Currie Cup at the weekend.

Erasmus revealed on Saturday night that numerous players would leave on Wednesday once the team had concluded their main on-field preparations for the historic Test against Os Lobos.

Licking their wounds after Ireland defeat

The Springboks arrived in Bloemfontein on Sunday afternoon and will start their on-field preparations for the Test on Monday as they look to bounce back from their Saturday’s 25-24 loss to Ireland.

“It was always part of our planning to expose a few players to top class international rugby against Portugal in line with our objective to build squad depth with an eye on the 2027 Rugby World Cup,” said Erasmus.

Some of the players had a taste of international rugby against Wales at Twickenham, others received an opportunity off the bench against Ireland, and Andre-Hugo Venter toured with us to London for the Wales Test, so we are delighted with the quality of the players coming through the ranks.

“Portugal are a quality team as they showed in the Rugby World Cup last year by defeating Fiji, and we have no doubt they’ll want to make a strong statement against us, so although we may mix things up for this Test, we’ll select a quality team that we have full faith in to get our season back on track.”

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Erasmus added: “The players we plan to release will continue to put in the hard yards to prepare the team that will face Portugal, as we generally do with the non-playing players, which is invaluable in preparing the team as well as possible.”

The Bok boss said although it was a setback lose to Ireland, the break for the players set to be released will be crucial as they look ahead to a challenging Rugby Championship campaign which sees them facing Australia (in Brisbane and Perth on August 10 and 17), two home Tests with New Zealand in Johannesburg and Cape Town (August 31 and September 7), a Test against Argentina in Santiago (September 21) and the final match, against Los Pumas in Nelspruit (September 28).

This is a long and challenging season, and as much as it would have been great to win both matches against Ireland, it’s vital that we manage the players well to allow them to regenerate in order to maximise their performances throughout the season,” said Erasmus.

“Those players will have 10 days off, which means they’ll be fresh when they rejoin the squad before the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.”

Erasmus will announce his matchday squad to face Portugal on Tuesday.

Springbok squad for the Portugal Test

Forwards: Ntuthuko Mchunu, Ox Nche, Gerhard Steenekamp, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Frans Malherbe, Vincent Koch, Trevor Nyakane, Thomas du Toit, Bongi Mbonambi, Malcolm Marx, Johan Grobbelaar, Andre-Hugo Venter, Eben Etzebeth, Salmaan Moerat, RG Snyman, Siya Kolisi, Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Phepsi Buthelezi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos, Ruan Venter, Kwagga Smith, Jasper Wiese

Backs: Faf de Klerk, Grant Williams, Cobus Reinach, Morne van den Berg, Handre Pollard, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Manie Libbok, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Jesse Kriel, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cheslin Kolbe, Willie le Roux, Makazole Mapimpi, Aphelele Fassi, Quan Horn