Comment by Ashfak Mohamed
Lets get straight to the elephant in the room: Evan Roos has been dropped from the Springbok squad for the Rugby Championship Tour of Australia, and it is hard to understand why.
There is no specialist No 8 in the 33-man squad announced by coach Rassie Erasmus yesterday, with Roos left out after starting against Portugal last week, and Jasper Wiese serving the final two games of his six-match suspension.
The loose-forwards in the squad are captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kwagga Smith, Marco van Staden, Ben-Jason Dixon and Elrigh Louw. Smith started at No 8 in both Tests against Ireland and is the likely figure in that position against the Wallabies again on August 10 and 17 in Brisbane and Perth, respectively.
So, why leave out a proper No 8 in Roos?