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South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has raised concerns over his squad's second-row strength less than three months before the start of the Rugby World Cup. Meyer has named a 36-man training squad ahead of the quadrennial tournament but is sweating over the fitness of several key players, including captain Jean de Villiers. And with Lood de Jager and Pieter-Steph du Toit both also on the treatment table - and Andries Bekker and Flip van der Merwe unaivalable - the former Leicester coach is running low on locks. "I am worried about No.5 lock and in our system that is probably the most vital guy because he runs all the line-outs," Meyer said. "There is a big difference between the No.4 and No.5. We have worked with Lood to move to No.5 but he hasn't played there often enough and especially at Test level." Bekker has not been made available to the Springboks by his Japanese club side, Kobe Steelers, although Meyer retains a hope that he will come into the reckoning and is also keeping in mind several experienced options outside of the current training squad. "We spoke to one or two other guys. Juandré Kruger is still an option because you need a specialist at No.5 because 40 per cent of tries in the world last year came from line-outs," he said. "If you don't win your lineouts, you don't win your games and I believe Victor sometimes gets unfair criticism. "But whenever he plays, he wins most of his line-outs and the opposition's, and he sometimes puts in the most tackles."
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