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Cape Town - Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach could still be a part of the Springbok squad for this year's Rugby World Cup in Japan.
That much was made clear when the 29-year-old's name was mentioned by Bok coach Rassie Erasmus at a press conference in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Reinach has not featured for the Boks since 2015, the same year that saw him overlooked by coach Heyneke Meyer for the World Cup in England with Rudy Paige cracking the nod for the showpiece instead.
As was the case back then, Reinach's path to the World Cup in 2019 would come as the third-choice scrumhalf.
"It's quite clear that Faf (De Klerk) and Embrose (Papier) are the two No 9s who everybody can see are in contention," Erasmus said before listing those in the running for selection as third-choice.
"Between Ivan (Van Zyl), Ross (Cronje), Louis (Schreuder), Cobus Reinach ... you have to take three scrumhalves to a World Cup."
The fact that Erasmus even mentioned Reinach's name came as something of a surprise given that he is based in England with Northampton Saints and that, as recently as last week, Reinach's coach, New Zealander Chris Boyd, spoke out about how transformation targets would likely see Reinach overlooked for the World Cup.
If Reinach does wish to punch his ticket to Japan, he would almost certainly have to feature in this year's shortened Rugby Championship in July and August.
Scrumhalf is not the only position where Erasmus still has some unanswered questions.
The shoulder injury to Bulls lock Lood de Jager, for example, means that Erasmus will likely have to identify a new second-choice No 5 lock to play behind Franco Mostert, certainly for the Rugby Championship at the very least.
"We are not quite settled on a few positions," Erasmus added.
"There are a few positions where, like everywhere else in the world, we are one injury away from really being in trouble.
"We are quite settled with most of it and I know where we are going and where we could be in trouble, but let's see where we are in round six or seven of Super Rugby."
