Etzebeth an injury concern for Boks

South Africa marked their return to Test action with a commanding 40-9 victory over Georgia at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Friday.

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber lauded Georgia for providing the Springboks with a proper challenge and said his side needed to find a marker to determine where they were after 20 months away from international rugby.

“I have to compliment Georgia – we knew of and expected their physicality, yet we had no real marker to know how well we would respond to that,” said Nienaber.

“They shocked us a bit in that opening half, but we now have a marker after this. We now know what to expect next week, which is something we did not have coming into this Test match.

However, the Springbok coach also revealed that veteran lock Eben Etzebeth suffered a rib injury.

Etzebeth was a standout in the first half as he fronted up against the Georgians but did not appear after half-time, with Marvin Orie taking his place in the second half.

The Bok head coach was unsure how serious the injury is, but added that there are “a couple of players with a knock or a bruise”.