Ruan Pienaar all but ruled out of Ireland encounter

Ruan Pienaar has effectively been ruled out of the Springboks’ first Test of their end-of-year tour next Saturday against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.

The 30-year-old Ulster scrumhalf has been sidelined since South Africa's defeat against New Zealand in mid-September when suffering a medial knee ligament injury and the South Africa's team doctor, Dr Craig Roberts, virtually ruled Pienaar out of the Aviva game yesterday.

Roberts confirmed that Pienaar had yet to resume running. “He is our only injury concern at the moment. We’ll make a call on his availability for the next three games.

“Based on where he is and we’ve had feedback from his club medical team on where his rehab is, he hasn’t done too much running at his stage. We really want to judge for ourselves where he is. At this stage, it doesn’t look like he will be available for a game this weekend. We hope to have him for England.”

Were Pienaar also unlikely to be available for the second game of the on Saturday week at Twickenham, they would most likely call up another scrumhalf.

This demonstrates how seriously the Springboks are taking their opening two tour games, with their subsequent games against Italy and Wales – which falls outside the IRB Test window and therefore will see none of their eight overseas players being made available – affording more opportunity for Heyneke Meyer to delve deeper into his 34-man squad.

Their barnstorming, big-carrying number eight Duane Vermeulen had been rested since the win over the All Blacks four weeks ago – when he played despite a rib injury – but Roberts added: "He's responded well. He will probably train this afternoon."