Bok boss Rassie Erasmus reveals plan for Evan Roos and Salmaan Moerat

The Stormers stars have been omitted from the initial Springbok 37-man squad to face Australia in their two opening Rugby Championship matches later this month.

The Boks' lock stocks run deep, but Roos' omission raised a few eyebrows from fans and pundits alike, as first-choice No.8 Jasper Wiese is currently serving out an unfortunate four-match ban for a headbutt during the incoming series. Erasmus has preferred the cover of his brother Cobus, as well as Marco van Staden and Springbok Swiss Army knife Kwagga Smith.

However, that doesn't mean that the duo are out of the Bok picture altogether. Erasmus revealed that he has released Roos and Stormers teammate Salmaan Moerat back to the Cape Town franchise, where they can work on their game. He discussed the plan with Director of Rugby John Dobson.

"I know everyone talks about the Evan Roos thing - I think you can phone Evan - all is good there," the World Cup-winning coach told the press.

"I know most of the coaches are planning to rest guys for the URC, but with Salmaan and Evan, we have chatted with Dobbo.

"[Assistant coach] Felix Jones has chatted with Dobbo about getting him [Roos] some game time and he knows what he must work on.

"We just feel that carrying so many loose forwards, guys are just going to train here. It's lekker to have that depth and then we have Jasper Wiese, who comes back for that second All Black game.

"We don't want to waste the players' time by just training with us, whereas they can actually play for their franchises or for the Currie Cup teams.

"So, we feel we have three guys that we will probably use in the Australian Test matches, and Evan might come into the mix a little bit later."

Roos has earned eight Springbok caps since 2022 and recently came off the bench for an impressive 24-minute cameo against Italy, while Moerat has captained the Boks on three occasions.