- Swys de Bruin led the chorus saying Elton Jantjies should not be completely discarded from the national team after his poor performance against Wales.
- Jantjies drew wide criticism but Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber caveated it by saying he played just 30 minutes prior.
- The Springboks escaped by the skin of their teeth at Loftus last Saturday under Wales hell fire, where Jantjies was yanked at half-time.
Former Springbok assistant coach Swys de Bruin led the chorus saying Elton Jantjies should not be completely discarded from the national team after his poor performance against Wales on Saturday.
Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber first defended Jantjies immediately after the narrow first Test win at Loftus, saying the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes pivot played just 30 minutes since January owing to a shoulder injury.
However, Nienaber was also the person who yanked Jantjies off at half-time when the Boks trailed 18-3, bringing Damian Willemse up to 10 from full-back and Willie le Roux in from the bench.
The move saved the Boks from an embarrassing first-ever defeat to Wales on home soil, as they scored four tries and a late Willemse penalty to seal the deal 32-29.
De Bruin, who coached Elton at the Lions during their Super Rugby heydays, also pointed out the Jantjies phenomenon of him being hung out whenever the Boks performed badly.
"I thought they threw him under the bus completely for all those reasons [that Nienaber mentioned]," Swys said on SuperSport's Final Whistle with Owen Nkumane.
"They didn't throw Willie away, and there's a lot of guys we didn't throw away when they had a bad game.
"Faf de Klerk didn't have a great game either, honestly. You can go look at his decision-making, apart from one or two things we saw.
"Somehow, with Elton, and I saw this for years, whenever you want to find a guy to hang up, it's Elton. We (Lions) won 78% of Super Rugby games with him at 10. That's highish.
"But you've got to play the guy for the right sort of game. I don't think starting him was the right thing.
"If you played him with 20 minutes to go, I'd put my last penny down that, if he came on with 13 guys, the Elton that I know we'd have all said in the paper and social media that 'Elton, you're the man'.
"In Afrikaans we say, ‘Hoë bome vang die meeste wind’ (The bigger your stature, the more criticism you attract)."
Former Springbok head coach and Sport24 columnist Nick Mallett agreed with Swys' views, adding that Jantjies was given a game plan that didn't suit his strengths.
"It was a very difficult decision to pick him in the first place because he's only had 30 minutes since January, I hear, because of his injured shoulder, rehabilitation and hadn't been taking much contact until three or four weeks ago," Mallett added on the TV programme.
"As Jacques Nienaber said, nothing prepares you for Test matches like Test matches. He was asked to play a game he's not really qualified for, with respect to Elton.
"He's not a kicking flyhalf; it's not in his DNA. His DNA is to get on the front foot and play his centres up, [involve] his blindside wings and play behind-the-back passes.
"He was asked to play a game that he didn't play well. And he made mistakes. There's no question about it, he didn't perform well."
Mallett also said the Boks weren't enjoying a great deal of depth at stand-off either and could ill-afford to cast away one of their 2019 World Cup winners.
"We're not in a situation in this country where we've got flyhalves knocking the door down. We've got Pollard, Johan Goosen, who's injured, [Jordan] Hendrikse, Damian Willemse, who comes in great on defence and Willie, who is great on attack," Mallet pointed out.
"So, what are they going to do? Swap with Willie when they've got the ball and Damian at 10 when the opposition has the ball?"
Nienaber will name his match 23 for the second Test in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.