Is Bongi still in Bok picture? Rassie explains the situation
· Citizen
Veteran Springbok hooker Bongi Mbonambi could be in line for a recall to the national team later this year if he successfully returns from injury with the Sharks, which would help out the overworked Malcolm Marx.
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It seemed like the Boks were phasing Mbonambi out of the system last year, with him only making five appearances for them over the year, all off the bench.
However, the players that have been backed to take over from Mbonambi clearly haven’t shaped up in the way Bok coach Rassie Erasmus hoped they would, as seen by the high number of minutes that Marx is being forced to play.
Last year Marnus van der Merwe, Johan Grobbelaar and Jan-Hendrik Wessels were the players to get chances to impress at hooker, and this year it has been Grobbelaar and Wessels, but none have been able to nail down the back-up hooker role.
Marx has on a number of occasions been forced to play the full 80 minutes of a match, as he did against the All Blacks over the past weekend.
Welcome return
Mbonambi playing again would thus be welcome news, but he would first have to prove his fitness and form with the Sharks, before possibly being considered for the end of year Nations Championship games.
“Bongi had a knee (injury) and then it’s a lower-back thing. He keeps us up to date and we WhatsApp every now and then to ask how he’s doing. But obviously the Sharks medical team must clear him first,” said Erasmus at a Bok press briefing on Tuesday.
“I’m not 100% sure which of the two injuries is keeping him out right now. But, as I say, we can’t pull him in here and let him play a first match again in a Test match.
“We’ll have to get him in and see him playing maybe a few Currie Cup games, and then maybe we can consider him again.
“I haven’t spoken to (Sharks coach) JP (Pietersen). I’ve only spoken to Bongi. About three weeks ago, I thought he was a week away, but since then I can’t tell you. JP would know (when he will be back).”
With the Sharks possibly having just one match remaining in the Currie Cup, it likely won’t be nearly enough to get Mbonambi decent time on the pitch to be considered for the last matches of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
For this weekend’s second Test between the Boks and All Blacks in Cape Town, veteran 39-year-old Deon Fourie will serve as back-up hooker to Marx.