"The Springboks received a welcome boost when captain Jean de Villiers unexpectedly arrived back at the team base to support them before their game Wednesday against the USA.
De Villiers, who flew back from Newcastle and underwent a three-hour surgery after breaking his jaw during the 46-6 Rugby World Cup win over Samoa, arrived at Heathrow Airport to rejoin the camp.
According to World Rugby regulations, he can give assistance to the team but is not in any official capacity.
SARU will have to carry the cost of having De Villiers with the team, and he does not have player accreditation and cannot travel in the team bus either.
"It went faster than I expected," a smiling De Villiers said at the airport.
De Villiers experience and captaincy will be valuable even from a non-playing role as the Boks look to qualify for the quarterfinals and then push on towards the trophy"
Jean is respected by and popular with the players and can influence them positively even in a non-playing capacity, He can off-set the negative impact of Matfield in the squad environment. This is good news for the Springboks and I hope the positive impact will already be in evidence in the game this afternoon.
